GREAT CRESTED GREBES continuing to do well

TUESDAY 7 AUGUST


Another pretty warm day with a few sharp showers and a continuing light SW wind.....

CHAFFINCH HOUSE, LITTLE CHALFONT (BUCKS)

Some passage overhead with 5 COMMON SWIFTS and 40 House Martins noted

CHESHAM POW WOW LAKE (BUCKS)

All four Mute Swans still, a female Gadwall, a single juvenile Coot and 2 COMMON KINGFISHERS; marked out all of the orchids with canes for protection

SPADE OAK PIT, LITTLE MARLOW (SOUTH BUCKS)

My fourth Bucks BLACK-NECKED GREBE of the year involved a dusky juvenile showing very well in the SW corner of the lake, loosely associating with Tufted Ducks

A lot of COMMON KINGFISHER activity, an eclipse Shoveler but not much else of note

A single well grown Great Crested Grebe chick with parent, single Mute Swan, 55 Greylag Geese (including numerous young), 7 Egyptian Geese (including a female with 3 young, one of which was leucistic), 23 Tufted Ducks, 197 Lapwing, a roosting flock of 97 Lesser Black-backed Gulls, 7 Argenteus Herring Gulls, 26 Common Terns (including 3 juveniles, one of which still being fed on the raft) and a feeding flock of 209 Common Starlings.

SHARDELOES LAKE (BUCKS)

Great Crested Grebes continuing to do very well with one pair feeding a well-growing single youngster and the second pair shielding 3 very tiny youngsters.

Both adult Mute Swans again, a female GADWALL with 5 well grown young, a female MANDARIN DUCK, good numbers of baby and juvenile Coots and a Grey Heron.

SPOTTED FLYCATCHER numbers have risen slightly with now 9 birds present, most likely two separate family parties as mostly juveniles. A single House Martin overhead and a Common Treecreeper