Three year-ticks but still no migrants

Pintail at Bow Creek, March 2011

Saturday March 19th: I arrived at the basin in glorious sunshine, cloudless skies and just a hint of a south-easterly wind, perfect conditions for a flyover raptor, a male Kestrel flying north over the Thames being mobbed by a Carrion Crow wasn't quite what I had in mind but was a year-tick nonetheless. Two Oystercatcher feeding on the Millennium flats and a Collared Dove flying north-east were also welcome additions but the conditions really should have delivered something better; we'd already had Little Ringed Plover and Sand Martin by this time last year but no obvious migrants were logged today. Wildfowl included two Canada Geese on the Millennium flats, a single Shelduck flying east, 96 Common Teal, the female Pintail at Bow Creek (I took the above photographs this morning, the flight shot shows really well the long-bodied, narrow-winged jizz of this elegant duck) and 30 Tufted Duck. Redshank numbers have dropped off in the last week or so and only a single bird came into the roost today, three Common Sandpiper were also noted at Bow Creek. A single Stock Dove was display flying over the old gravel works before landing on a warehouse roof, I couldn't find a second bird but a pair is usually present in this area although its not exactly typical habitat for this species something is clearly going on.

Sunday March 20th: A pre-work dawn start in overcast conditions produced a very similar tally to that of yesterday, wildfowl include two Canada Geese on the basin, 2 Shelduck and the female Pintail on Bow Creek, 146 Common Teal throughout the site and 37 Tufted Duck, all but three on the basin; a Redshank was heard and three Common Sandpipers were seen on the creek and a collared Dove flew in from the east and landed in a tree on the other side of the A13. I also returned late in the day and concentrated on covering the Pura Foods peninsula in the hope of a Little Ringed Plover or a Wheatear, no sign of either just around six each of Pied Wagtail and Linnet feeding on the short grass area; the only other notable passerines were two Reed Buntings in the pylon reedbed at dusk and a calling Chiffchaff in the ecology park.