Little Ringed Plover new for the year

I can't remember a year when I have not seen Little Ringed Plover in March, that record was under threat so I had to give it a go this morning. A missed phone call from Gary to tell me that I had missed two Mandarin on the Thames off the basin didn't auger well and when I met up with him he'd also scored a singing Blackcap; needless to say the Mandarins were long gone and the Blackcap had shut up in the freezing  weather, a nasty north-easterly was doing a good impression of mid January. I had a few things to do so I decided to try again later (with another layer of clothing) and as soon as I arrived at the basin I saw an Little Ringed Plover on the island, record maintained. I walked to the vantage point on the road and saw that there were now two birds there, yellow eyerings glowing in the late afternoon sunshine. The rest of the days haul included 51 Tufted Duck, but the red-saddled Portuguese female seen by John a couple of times in the week was not among them,  36 Common Teal, a big departure from last week, three Common Sandpipers, the electric flash of a Kingfisher at Bow Creek and both Grey and Pied Wagtails, the latter singing.

Pochard and Oystercatcher new for the year

There has been some really fine weather over the last few days, but Saturday dawned with a very dense cold fog enveloping the patch, a reminder that we are still in March and gloves are not yet an optional extra. Gary arrived with the news that the fog was restricted to the river and warm sunshine was to be had a scant mile to the north but we both elected to stay on site until the mist had burnt off and we were rewarded with a male Pochard on the Thames, the first that either of us can remember on the river. The rest of the days haul was fairly pedestrian, Common Teal numbers continue to fall with just 70 counted today along with 35 Tufted Duck and two pairs of Shelduck, one of which was displaying. A solitary Common Sandpiper constituted the wader interest, it looks like we've seen our last wintering Redshank and apart from the outside chance of a passage bird, that's it until October. Passerine interest was provided by a singing Song Thrush, three singing Chaffinch and a pair of Linnets. By 11 o'clock the mist had burnt off completely and the basin started to fill up with people armed with football toting brats who had obviously mistaken the nature reserve for a park, time for us to leave. Sunday dawned clear but cold and the first thing that was obvious on arrival at the basin was the that the Long-tailed Tit nest in the copse has been completely wrecked, closer inspection revealed that a lot of the spring growth in the copse has been trampled; Lea Valley Regional Park has taken out so much of the undergrowth here that a mentally challenged chav family could easily mistake it for a football pitch; oh for the halcyon days of the London Docklands Development Corporation, at least they did nothing. My mood lightened a little with the arrival of the first two vocal Oystercatchers of the year on the Millennium Dome mudflats, Common Sandpiper numbers were up to six on Bow Creek but this could have been a conservative count as it was made at low tide, at least some of these birds have to be migrants; Common Teal numbers were also up with 83 counted this morning other wildfowl included two Shelduck and 29 Tufted Duck Other notables included two Stock Doves flying north-west, an impressive gathering of over 40 Carrion Crows on the reedbed pylon, a singing Song Thrush and four Linnets. Just like yesterday the flow of human traffic increased with the rising mercury, so I made the short trip downstream to Gallions Reach where I was confronted with thew astonishing sight of around 280 Black-tailed Godwits, most of them in summer plumage, feeding on a rising tide, at least two Curlew were among them along with some 80 Redshank and over 50 Shelduck. It's been a slow year for migrants so far but within the space of 15 minutes I had my first Swallow heading east before gaining height and disappearing inland over the Roding flood barrier, my first March record and the first time I have ever seen Swallow before Sand Martin, and a superb male Northern Wheatear  picked up sitting shrike-like at the top of a Birch tree. 

Chiffchaff new for the year

Gadwall at Bow Creek, 17/3/2012

Long-tailed Tit nest at Bow Creek Ecology Park, 17/3/2012

A short burst of onomatopoeic song delivered from an often overlooked area of unpromising scrub by the blue bridge and Chiffchaff is on  the yearlist at last; no overwintering birds could be found this year so it is almost certainly a migrant, the weather was filthy but this affirmation that spring is finally here reduced the rain to a minor inconvenience, things are as they should be and that's all that matters. I found another Long-tailed Tit nest, this time in the ecology park. I tarried long enough to take the picture above and then left the birds in peace, I only hope that Lea Valley Regional Park will do the same; I notice a lot of severe pruning has taken place this month and it is simply the wrong time of the year to be doing it; the other nest at the basin may have been deserted as the bramble where it is located has had a very severe haircut. The wader roost held a single Redshank but there are still three Common Sandpipers in the area, the tide was not high enough to cover all their feeding areas so only one of them was actually in the roost. Common Teal numbers still manage to break the ton with 121 counted today, I couldn't find the female Pintail but I did find an unusually flighty male Gadwall at Bow Creek; other wildfowl included six Shelduck and 31 Tufted Duck. Plenty of passerines are singing now among them a Chaffinch, not a species that has ever been proven to breed at the lower Lea.

Stock Dove new for the year

There was a real spring feel to the patch today, many of the Blackthorns in the northern scrub have a fuzz of blossom and other trees including Alder and Hawthorn are starting to put out leaves; many species are singing including Dunnock, Song Thrush and Greenfinch with at least two males of the latter performing their butterfly-like display flights, and a pair of Long-tailed tits have almost completely finished building their beautiful domed nest in a bramble, I've seen them carrying nesting material in previous years but this is the first time I've seen a nest. Common Teal numbers have dropped with just 103 counted today, other wildfowl included two Shelduck and 28 Tufted Duck, very little water is getting into the basin but there is a good series of  better than 6 metre tides starting tomorrow and staying high until the end of the month so we have a good chance of picking up a Pochard, grebe or something rarer, Garganey is well overdue and Little Egret has become unaccountably scarce in recent years. Redshank numbers are also down with just ten in the high tide roost, as the high tide was so low plenty of feeding areas were still available to Common Sandpipers and I only managed to find three this morning, this would have been a good count most years but I know there are more out there, a big tide is needed to put them all in the roost. Three Stock Doves were feeding on the Pura Foods peninsula and were the only year tick of the day.