Woodcock at the patch

Another successful night-birding session at Staines Moor this evening. Quieter than last night but then it was quite windy and it started raining at 18:15, but 1 Woodcock showed very well in the north-east corner, and 7(1H) Common Snipe and 5 Mallard dropping into one of the pools were seen.

Highlights from the Moor during the day were 1 Common Chiffchaff along the mainline railway embankment, 1 Red Kite NW, 1 Common Buzzard W mobbed by Carrion Crows, 1 Little Egret, 110+ Fieldfare still at the north end, 5+ Redwing, 2(1m, 1f) Stonechat along the Colne, 1 Egyptian Goose E, 1 Little Grebe, 3 Mute Swan, 6 Green Woodpecker, 1 Great Spotted Woodpecker, 6+ Linnet, 2 Skylark S, 7 Meadow Pipit (mainly N), 1 Common Snipe, 1+ Kestrel and 15 Magpie (a high site count). The pools on the Moor are filling up nicely with all this rain.

Woodcock this evening at Staines Moor

Part of the large Fieldfare flock currently present at the north end

Night-birding at Staines Moor

Spent two hours from dusk night-birding around the Moor, until the heavens opened and lightning started flashing across the sky, when I thought, bugger this I'm off! Highlights were 2+ Woodcock scurrying around the anthills at the north end, 2 Jack Snipe accidentally flushed from one of the iris channels (and another probable that flew up from the Colne) and 15(11 H) Common Snipe.

In the afternoon 7 Little Grebe (my highest site count), 1 Little Egret, 1 Grey Wagtail, 2(1m, 1f) Stonechat, 122+ Fieldfare at the north end, 1+ Pied Wagtail, 3 Mute Swan, and 10 Linnet coming to roost were noted. On Stanwell Moor c25 Common Teal, 2 Shoveler, 3 Mallard, 1 Kingfisher, c40 Goldfinch and 1 Kestrel were logged.

Jack Snipe at Staines Moor

An afternoon at the patch produced the hoped for Jack Snipe, with 1 seen well in flight (although you'd never know it from the photo), along with 1 flighty Water Pipit along the Colne, 1 Peregrine over distantly SW, 3 Red Kite over NW, 1 Common Buzzard on the west side that flew off east, 2 Common Snipe, 1 redpoll sp. over S, 1 Grey Wagtail, 1m Stonechat, 1m Reed Bunting, a fantastic flock of 190+ Fieldfare at the north end, 17 Redwing, 4 Pied Wagtail, 1+ Little Grebe on Colne and 1+ Grey Heron. Also, a flock of Great, Blue and Long-tailed Tits were along the old railway.

A record shot of today's Jack Snipe

One of three Red Kites over NW today

A few Moroccan reptiles

A belated post showing a few photos of some of the reptiles seen in Morocco back in March. It was a shame we didn't have time to search for more species.

Male Atlas Day Gecko Quedenfeldtia trachyblepharus, Oukaimeden, High Atlas, 10 March 2013 - a Moroccan endemic found only
in the Toubkal Massif and the High Atlas Mountains.

Female Atlas Day Gecko Quedenfeldtia trachyblepharus, Oukaimeden, High Atlas, 10 March 2013

Duméril's Fringe-fingered Lizard Acanthodactylus dumerilii, east of Erg Chebbi, 15 March 2013. This well-marked
individual is presumably a male (compare below).

Duméril's Fringe-fingered Lizard Acanthodactylus dumerilii, east of Erg Chebbi, 15 March 2013

Podarcis sp. cf. Podarcis vaucheri, Oukaimeden, High Atlas, 10 March 2013

Podarcis sp. cf. Podarcis vaucheri, Oukaimeden, High Atlas, 10 March 2013

Spanish Terrapin Mauremys leprosa, Lake Sidi Boughaba National Park, 20 March 2013

Check out the diversity of reptiles and amphibians found in Morocco on the excellent website Morocco Herps.

Great grey dusk

Spent a couple of hours at Thursley Common this afternoon. The Great Grey Shrike showed well near dusk in very gloomy conditions, but I managed a few record shots. Also 54 Fieldfare, 3 Redwing over, 2 Meadow Pipit and a redpoll species over SW were noted, but otherwise things were very quiet.

Great Grey Shrike

A great day at the patch

The 10 November 2013 will go down as an excellent day at the patch, with a third record for Staines Moor followed by a second in quick succession. The first was a Great White Egret that dropped into the Colne for all of three minutes at 12:23 before flying off high west. This is the third record for Staines Moor, following 1 on 6 September 2002 and 1 from 22-24 December 2007.

Great White Egret, Staines Moor - the third record for the patch

Great White Egret, Staines Moor

Great White Egret, Staines Moor

Great White Egret, heading off west over Staines Moor

Great White Egret along the Colne, Staines Moor, briefly before flying high west

Then 18 minutes later, a flock of 7 Whooper Swan flew high over heading east, before appearing to drop down onto King George VI Reservoir. A quick text to Rob Innes resulted in Rob relocating the birds on the south basin of Staines Reservoirs, and fortunately I managed to get there before dusk to see them swimming around (many thanks to Rob Innes for following this up and relocating them). This is the second record for Staines Moor - 1 adult on 11 February 1956 being the only other record.

4 adult and 3 juvenile Whooper Swans high over Staines Moor at 13:48 (what do you mean you can't tell what these are?) - the first
record here since 1956! Fortunately, I had much better views of these birds this evening at Staines Reservoirs. They were also
seen over Lavell's Lake LNR, Berkshire, at 11:27 - pic here.

Other bits seen today include 3 Water Pipit together around the south flood, 11 Common Snipe, 3 (1m, 2f) Stonechat, 4 Common Buzzard over S, and 1 Goldcrest.

Common Buzzard - 4 over south today

1 Small Copper, and three Common Darters (included a pair mating and egg-laying) were also noted on Staines Moor. At Staines Reservoirs in the evening 2 Black-necked Grebe on the south basin and a Curlew flying west were also noted.

Late autumn at Staines Moor

A few hours at Staines Moor today produced 1-2 Water Pipit along the Colne, 5 Common Snipe, 5 Stonechat (2m, 3f), 1 Grey Wagtail, 4+ Pied Wagtail, 16+ Meadow Pipit, 3 Redwing, 1 Fieldfare, 1 Little Egret, 2 Little Grebe, 37+ Black-headed Gull on the Colne, 1 Great Spotted Woodpecker and 3 Green Woodpecker.

Some vis mig: a meagre 276 Woodpigeon SSW (an incredible 50,800 were reported over Swanscombe Marsh today), quite a lot of Starling moving W (and another c100 around the cattle), 4 Skylark SSW and 18 Goldfinch. The best bird of the day was a probable Jack Snipe flushed, that I just didn't get enough on.

First of today's male Stonechats

Second male. Oddly, three of the five Dartford Warblers that have turned up at the moor were associating with Stonechats?
I'm keeping my eyes peeled!

Lots of Parasol Mushrooms Macrolepiota procera around at the moment, and Ragged-Robin Lychnis flos-cuculi is still flowering in the wetter areas.