Staines Moor: 26 March

Cool, drizzly conditions with a freshening southerly wind and heavy showers made birding the patch today very hard work. However, persistence paid off with my first two summer migrants of the year - a male Northern Wheatear that dropped down on to the west side during a downpour and a Sand Martin through south.

Also seen were 2 Water Pipits along the Colne in different stages of moult - 1 in almost full summer plumage and another about half way through its moult, 2 Shelduck (east pool), 3+ Redshank (Colne), 1m Grey Wagtail, 2 (1m, 1f) Stonechat, 6 Fieldfare, 1-2 Little Egret, 1 Cetti's Warbler (Colne north of boardwalk), 10 (9m, 1f) Reed Bunting, 3 Linnet, 2 Coot (1 Colne, 1 Moor Lane lake carrying nest material), 10+ (8+m, 2f) Pied Wagtail (feeding and flycatching along the Colne), 2 Kestrel (including the male), 4 ad Mute Swan (Colne), 9 Mallard ((5m, 3f Colne, 1m Moor Lane lake), 4 (3m, 1f) Tufted Duck (Moor Lane lake) and many Meadow Pipit and Skylark.

Noted overhead: 1 Peregrine S, 1 pale phase Common Buzzard S, 3 Red Kite, and 4 Greylag Goose E (and later back W).

Stanwell Moor added 1H Chiffchaff and 8 Redwing,

Male Northern Wheatear - the first for Staines Moor of the spring (7 days later than last year)

Water Pipit partially moulted into summer plumage along the Colne today

Weather: Overcast (8 oktas), very light drizzle for most of the day with heavy showers, moderate SW wind, cool.

Staines Moor: 7 February

Spent late morning to dusk on the patch trying out my new kit - Canon EOS 7D Mark II, Canon EF 100-400mm Mark II lens, Lowepro Flipside 400 bag and Manfrotto 190 GO! Carbon Fibre tripod - all of which are superb. The camera/lens combo has lightening-fast auto-focus, and I can at last use my extender. Doesn't mean the photos will get any better though!

Fairly quiet today in blustery conditions - highlights: 3 Water Pipit (Colne), 1 Little Egret (Colne), 4 Little Grebe (Colne), 1 Common Snipe (west pool), 8 (3m, 5f) Stonechat, 1 Coot (Colne), 15 Fieldfare (old railway), 4 Goldcrest (old railway), 7 Skylark, 4+ Meadow Pipit, 1 Pied Wagtail (Colne), 3 Chaffinch, 1+ Kestrel, 1 Grey Heron, 1 Red Kite E and 1 Eurasian Sparrowhawk NE.

1 of 3 Water Pipit along the Colne today

Solar eclipse birding: 20 March

Frustratingly, thick cloud this morning completely obscured the 85% solar eclipse, with a small drop in light and a much more noticeable drop in temperature being the only clues to the spectacle unfolding above. Of course, in the early afternoon the cloud cleared for a beautiful early spring day.

Spring passage has begun in style at the patch with a fantastic summer plumage littoralis Rock Pipit beside the Colne - only the third record of Rock Pipit for Staines Moor (my second) following the first on 20 October 1999 and a partial summer littoralis bird beside the Colne on 15 Mar 2003. With littoralis seen at several London sites over the last few days I was really hoping for one today. Unfortunately I only managed a record shot. 2 Water Pipits along the Colne, included one in almost full summer plumage, made an excellent comparison.

Scandinavian Rock Pipit (Anthus petrosus littoralis) - only the third record for Staines Moor! Note the diffuse broad streaking on the
underparts, grey mantle merging into the grey head, white supercilium becoming broader behind the eye and you can just make out
the dark malar patch (thanks to Mark Pearson for his view on the identification).

Water Pipit along the Colne today moulting into summer plumage

The same Water Pipit - note the paler (and pink washed) and largely unstreaked underparts, very fine malar stripe and lack of dark
malar patch compared to the littoralis Rock Pipit above

2 Redshank along the Colne are probably returning breeders, and 9 Northern Lapwing (also seen on Stanwell Moor) included at least one displaying on the east side. 7+(4+H) Common Chiffchaff were my first wave of migrants, and 6 Reed Bunting, c28 Meadow Pipit, c 7 Skylark (included several singing) and 5+(3m) Linnet were along the Colne.

Other notables at Staines Moor were 1m Eurasian Wigeon feeding on mud along the Colne in the evening (very unusual here nowadays with all the disturbance), 1f Goosander over SE, 26 Fieldfare (NE corner), 1 Redwing (old railway), 2 Red Kite (with another distant NW over King George VI Reservoir), 2 Common Buzzard (including 1 pale bird), 1 Little Egret (Colne), 2+ Pied Wagtail, 2 Goldcrest, 1m+ Kingfisher (Colne), 2 Egyptian Goose (Colne briefly), 2 Greylag Goose SE, 1 Canada Goose NE, and 6+ Mallard paired up.

Also found two pairs of nesting Long-tailed Tits - one nest is almost complete that the birds were lining with feathers, and the other has not long been started.

Two Long-tailed Tit nests found today, at very different stages of being built

An hour or so night-birding after dark produced 1 Eurasian Woodcock (seen very poorly), 1 Jack Snipe (seen equally poorly) and 10+(7H) Common Snipe, 3 Roe Deer in the NE corner (a site record count and my second record) and a Red Fox. Redshank and Northern Lapwing calling at night was a nice bonus.

Stanwell Moor added 6(3H) Chiffchaff, 3 Chaffinch N, 1 Little Owl in the usual horse paddock, 2(H) Cetti's Warbler, 2 Canada Goose and 1m Common Pheasant. In Stanwell Moor Village a Little Egret gave ridiculously close views as I was parking the car, fishing in the stream along Hithermoor Road and occasionally walking around on the pathment and flying up onto the house roofs.

Little Egret in Stanwell Moor Village this morning

Little Egret on the pathment - not something you see everyday!

Nor on a roof!

Taken for granted nowadays, but imagine this bird showing like this back the in 80s!

Water Pipits at Staines Moor

It is estimated that only 190 Water Pipits spend the winter in the whole of the UK² (a surprisingly small number I think), mostly in south-east England. The first Water Pipit recorded at Staines Moor was a single bird by the River Colne back on 3 April 1954¹, but with a mean maximum of nine birds wintering each year since 2000, and high counts including 13 in 2002, 15 in 2005 and a site record of an incredible 16 present in March 2003¹, Staines Moor has become known locally as a reliable site for these scarce continental visitors. In fact Staines Moor must surely be the premier London site for this species, and rank as one of the very best sites in Britain! I am occasionally asked where best to look on the Moor, so I thought I'd give some pointers on how to find them.

Dogs are an ever present source of disturbance at Staines Moor nowadays, so Water Pipits can often be tricky to find and getting reasonable or prolonged deck views can be frustrating to say the least. They are often seen flying over, when the best way to pick one up is by their flight call (fortunately they are often very vocal). However, they frequently associate with Meadow Pipits, so even if you do hear one you will likely to be confronted with several pipits flying over, not just one. These photos highlight the key flight features in winter plumage to help pick one out.

Winter plumage Water Pipit Anthus spinoletta (left) and Meadow Pipit Anthus pratensis (right) - photographed at Staines Moor in 2013

The most striking feature of Water Pipit in flight is the very white underparts with streaking largely restricted to the breast and just faint streaking on the flanks (top left and center left). This creates a vivid contrast between the underparts and the wings, also the white vent contrasts markedly with the black under-tail. By comparison, Meadow Pipit is a pale buff below with bold streaking on the flanks clearly visible (top right and center right), creating far less contrast.

Viewed side on or from above, the wing bars are bolder on Water Pipit than on Meadow Pipit (top left and top right), and given good views the pale bold supercilium is usually visible (top left and bottom left), and much more obvious than on any well marked Meadow Pipit (top right and bottom right), and the tertials on Water Pipit also have bolder pale edges. Also, Water Pipit appears longer (they are longer tailed and longer winged than Meadow Pipit) and less dumpy then Meadow Pipit, with a slightly longer and finer bill and stronger flight.

Water Pipit, Staines Moor, 22 January 2013

For a comparison of flight calls see below.



Rock Pipit Anthus petrosus is extremely rare at Staines Moor with just two records - one on 20 October 2000 and an individual of the Scandinavian race A. p. littoralis beside the Colne on 15 Mar 2003¹. However, Rock Pipit occur frequently at the adjacent reservoirs and so should not be ruled out. For an excellent video on separating Rock from Water Pipit click here.

Water Pipit occur at Staines Moor from October to May (by which time they have often acquired their beautiful summer plumage). They are most frequently found foraging along the banks of the River Colne, especially between the two footbridges (also check the willows by the southern footbridge). The large vernal pool next to the swamp in the south-east corner of the site is another favoured area (where they sometimes perch up in the hawthorns), as are the channels and pools west of the Colne and the two iris channels in the north-west corner.

Map showing the areas on Staines Moor most frequently visited by Water Pipits. Water Pipits can be found anywhere
on Staines Moor (as well as on adjacent Stanwell Moor). The banks of the Colne are the most reliable place to look,
but they also feed in the channels, around the floods and in the grass, and often perch on the hawthorns (alternate
click and open in a new tab or window to enlarge).

References

¹ Dingain, L. (2013) The Avian History of Staines Moor. Lond. Bird Rep. 76: 214-226.
² Musgrove, A. et al. (2013) Population estimates of birds in Great Britain and the United Kingdom. British Birds 106: 64-100.

Fieldfare exodus

A great winter's day at Staines Moor today with a strong cold weather movement of Fieldfare throughout the day, moving south in groups up to 130 in number, with a few dropping down to feed or rest for a few minutes before continuing on. By the end of the day I'd counted a conservative 1,192! This beats the previous highest count for Staines Moor of 1,000 on 15th April 1977.

Other birds moving overhead included 1 Curlew E, 40 Siskin N, 1 Northern Lapwing W, 1 Common Snipe E, 2 Skylark S, 1m Reed Bunting N, 1 Jackdaw N (scarce here), 1 Pied Wagtail E and 1 Greenfinch N.

Fieldfares streaming south! Click to enlarge

2-3 Short-eared Owls were still present and 2 showed well hunting along the east side early afternoon. Also seen were 2 Water Pipits along the Colne and on the frozen southern flood in the company of 3 Meadow Pipit, 3+ (2m, 1f) Stonechat, 3 Song Thrush still feeding along the banks of the Colne, 2 Common Snipe flushed from the Colne, 1 Little Egret, 1 Little Grebe and 1 Goldcrest.

Water Pipit

Water Pipit

Water Pipit

3 Song Thrushes have spent the last few days foraging along the banks of
the Colne where the ground is less frozen

Stanwell Moor added 2 Golden Plover E (appeared to drop down onto King George VI Reservoir), another 44 Fieldfare (mainly S), 2+ Lesser Redpoll feeding with 5+ Reed Bunting, 3 Common Snipe, 4 Gadwall (came off King George IV Reservoir), 1 Northern Lapwing, 4 Greenfinch over (mainly S), 8 Goldfinch N and 2m Pheasant.