Ewell Waxwings

There's a flock of Waxwings a mile from my house at the moment in Ewell (at the junction of Ewell Park Road and the A24), so I thought I'd go and take a quick look. Unfortunately, the birds were easily startled by traffic and pedestrians and being on such a busy road I couldn't be bothered to hang about for too long, but I did manage a few record shots. What is it with Waxwings choosing tiny berry bushes at busy junctions?

This shot isn't at all sharp, but I quite like it anyway.

The birds would occasionally drop down to a small Rowan tree to steal a few
berries before flying back up to the tops of surrounding trees. This is an adult
male.

I counted a maximum of 39 birds

London's incredibly tame Buff-bellied Pipit

It took London's first ever Buff-bellied Pipit, turning up less than 2 miles from the patch, to break my self-imposed no twitch rule (don't worry, this twitch is a one-off! Honest!!). The bird showed ridiculously well along the east bank of Queen Mother Reservoir in Berkshire, down to less than a metre at times (Water Pipits at Staines Moor take note), and proved a real education as well as providing amazing photo opportunities! Unfortunately I didn't hear it call once. I must say a huge thank you to the Berkshire Ornithological Club for arranging access and organising everything so well!

The bird didn't seem to mind being under the main flightpath of Heathrow Airport.
Oh look everyone, an Airbus A380!

Some terrible video below - I wonder why I couldn't hear it call?



The male Long-tailed Duck was seen, loosely associating with c60 Tufted Duck, and the Red-necked Grebe was with a group of 8 Great Crested Grebes. Also, 4+ Common Goldeneye, 5+ Pied Wagtail and just a single Fieldfare were noted.

Long-tailed Duck with Tufted Ducks

At Staines Moor late afternoon, 3 Short-eared Owls were still along the east side, and an hour or so spent spotlighting for Woodcock after dark produced 10-15 Common Snipe (H) in the floods.

A freezing 12/12/12

Freezing mist early this morning followed by fog prompted me to leave traipsing around the moor until Friday. Even once the fog had lifted it remained largely dull with the frost persisting all day. Kept an eye on the feeders in the garden while working from home which were fairly busy, with 1m Blackcap, 2+ Stock Dove, 2 Eurasian Nuthatch, 3 Chaffinch, lots of Coal, Blue, Great and Long-tailed Tits, several Blackbird, 4+ Goldfinch, lots of Woodpigeon, 3+ Robin, 1 Dunnock, 1 Wren, 3+ Ring-necked Parakeet and a few Magpie logged. Also heard a Pied Wagtail overhead and a Red Fox stalked the birds in next door's garden. The bird bath was frozen this morning - must remember to put out fresh water daily.

Male Chaffinch. The Chaffinches spent a lot of time pecking at the frozen buds in
this plum tree.

Female Ring-necked Parakeet. This bird still has frost on the primaries and tail
feathers late morning (click to enlarge).

Male Blackbird. Seems to be quite a few Blackbirds around at the moment.

Lots of Woodpigeon around at the moment

A bright winter's day

Slightly warmer today with bright sunny calm conditions thawing the ice a little. 1-2 very mobile Water Pipits around the frozen pools are my first of the winter, also 6 Stonechat (3m, 3f), 2 Common Snipe, 1-2 Little Egret, 28 Fieldfare, 5 Song Thrush, 4 Mistle Thrush, 10 Pied Wagtail, 4 Skylark, 1 Reed Bunting, 1 Sparrowhawk narrowly missing a Pied Wag, 1-2 Kestrel and still quite a lot of Blackbirds and Robins around. 3 Short-eared Owls still present along the east side, showing well, on and off (albeit a little distant), from 14:20 onwards. Overhead: 1 Red Kite, 2 Redpoll sp., 1 Siskin H, 2 Redwing SW, 1 Common Gull and 2 more Common Snipe near dusk.

Water Pipit

Short-eared Owl. 3 birds showing again today but generally distant.

Red Kite are regular over Staines Moor. This bird had no wing tags.

Stanwell Moor produced 1 Little Owl, 1 Goldcrest and a lone Common Gull.

Short-eared Owls at the moor

An excellent dawn to dusk session at the patch today. Temperatures dipped below freezing last night leading to a heavy frost and all the pools on the moor covered in a thin layer of ice, and the mainly sunny and calm conditions (with barely perceptible westerlies) made for a cold day. The highlight was 3 Short-eared Owl showing well hunting around the eastern side of the moor from mid afternoon until dusk. Unfortunately they kept their distance and often landed for long periods, maybe because of the frequent mobbing by Carrion Crows. It's looking likely that they might be wintering on the moor this year.

The owls were persistently harassed by Carrion Crows and even the odd
Black-headed Gull had a go

When they weren't being mobbed by Carrion Crows they'd harass each other

Short-eared Owl with the M25 and Wraysbury Reservoir in the distance

The cold weather produced a little movement overhead throughout the day: 2 Brent Geese E, 24 Lapwing N, 1 Little Egret W, 40 Fieldfare S, 2 Redwing S, 1 Skylark S, small groups of Cormorant W, and 1 Common Snipe E and a Peregrine N at dusk. 1 Red Kite, presumably a wandering bird from the Chilterns, flew low east, dropping down to the ground briefly to grab a food item.

2 Dark-bellied Brents over east at 13:07 - probably the same 2 birds seen by
Dave Harris at QE2 Reservoir an hour later - see Dave's excellent photo here

Red Kite

Several flocks of Cormorant went high over west, possibly displaced by
frozen water bodies

On the ground: 3-4 Common Snipe, 4 (2m, 2f) Stonechat, another 36 Fieldfare, 5 Song Thrush, lots of Blackbirds and Robins, 15+ Pied Wagtails (a good site count) and 46 Meadow Pipit feeding on the icy pools, 1 Chiffchaff, 2 Reed Bunting, 7 Greenfinch, 17 Goldfinch, another Skylark, 2-3 Little Egret, 30 Starling, 1-2 Grey Heron amd 4 Little Grebe on the Colne. 3 Stock Dove over, 1-2 Kestrel and a Red Fox were also noted.

Much of Staines Moor is flooded after the large quantity of rain we've been having, but all pools were iced over today. Hopefully these pools will attract some waders in the spring.

The first day this winter with largely frozen water bodies

The flood at the south end

These pools are usually dry, even in winter.

Stanwell Moor added 2 Little Owl (in the willows along the Colne Valley Way footpath to Staines Moor), an additional 40 Lapwing, 1 Redpoll sp. over, 3+ Reed Bunting, 12+ Blackbird, 2 Song Thrush, 5+ Fieldfare, 15 Stock Dove, 30 Goldfinch and 3 Skylark.

Hawkmoth mimics?

Back in September in Brazil's Atlantic Forest, we trapped a couple of unfamiliar moths at REGUA that look superficially like Ambulycini hawkmoths, but smaller and without the brightly coloured underwings and/or thorax typical of these hawkmoths. Both moths adopted a head-down posture at rest and had large 'flares' on their legs. We had no idea which family they belonged to, but back in the UK I've worked out that they are both moths of the Apatelodidae family (superfamily: Bombycidae) - known as American Silkworm Moths, Lappet Moths, or head-standers, which comprises around 250 species. Despite their common name they are not closely related to the saturniids at all.

Several specimens of Apatelodes princeps (top pic.) were trapped - a widespread species throughout the Neotropics. However, the moth below (bottom pic.) has both me and Alexandre Soares, an entomologist at the National Museum of Brazil in Rio de Janeiro, completely baffled as to its identity!

Apatelodes princeps, Guapi Assu Bird Lodge, 21 September 2012

Apatelodes sp., Guapi Assu Bird Lodge, 22 September 2012

A quiet afternoon at the London Wetland Centre

A few hours at the London Wetland Centre this afternoon produced 1m Pintail, 1 Shelduck, 50 Wigeon, 40 Gadwall, lots of Teal, and small numbers of Northern Shoveler, Tufted Duck, Mallard and Pochard, c30 Lapwing, 2 (1m, 1f) Stonechat, 1 Goldcrest, 1m Sparrowhawk, 1 redpoll sp. over, 2 Cetti's Warbler H, 1 Grey Wagtail H, and this tame Robin that had no problem whatsoever perching on my hand and taking pieces of my Nature Valley Crunch bar. The kids walking past loved it and even had a go feeding the bird (using up the rest of my snack!). It's always great to see kids connecting with nature.

Check out these photos of a Japanese Robin that turned up in Beijing, China yesterday. What an awesome bird!