After a day out in Surrey yesterday, I decided I would stay local today and pay a visit to Farmoor Reservoir where I had heard reports of a flock of about 15 little gulls. I arrived at 9.45 am; the large car park was fairly busy but mostly from fishermen and bird watchers; sailing lessons hadn't yet begun for the day.
As I reached the top of the slope, I scanned the reservoir and immediately was drawn to a flock of gulls ducking and diving over the water. They were smaller than gulls I'd seen before, and I noticed the dark underwings - could they be the little gulls? I walked over to the causeway and stopped to talk to someone with a telescope - yes they were definitely little gulls, he told me, but not 15 of them but 81! Although distant, it was possible to make out their black heads and beaks and dark underwings. There were a few common tern amongst them too.
It was a peaceful scene as I made my way slowly along the causeway but as I walked I became aware of some cheeping. Looking down to the shoreline, I spotted what I thought was a lone duckling. Initially I thought it was lost but then realised there were some adult greylags further along which were evidently its parents. Was it the last remaining gosling from a larger brood I wondered? I watched it poking amongst the tufts of vegetation for food, followed by its parents The adults stepped into the water and started swimming but the gosling was obviously not brave enough and only stood at the edge and they eventually came out again! At the far end were a pair of gadwalls, a species I don't regularly see on the reservoir - usually only mallards and tufted ducks. Other birds noted were lesser and greater black backed gulls, great crested grebes, yellow and pied wagtails as well as other usual species.
It was breezy along the causeway so I was glad to drop down to the Pinkhill nature reserve where it was more sheltered. I took the path that leads alongside the Thames where the bushes and trees were alive with birdsong - blackcaps and chiffchaffs as well as reed and sedge warblers, also a whitethroat and a distant cuckoo. Reaching the Shrike Meadow, a sedge warbler was singing loud and clear and I eventually located it near the top of a bush next to a bridge over a separate area of water where it posed nicely for photos.
I also saw my first speckled wood butterfly of the year and a couple of small whites and a female orange tip.
Retracing my steps across the causeway I found two dunlins feeding together at the water's edge, my first for the year. I watched them for a while, before returning to my car.
little gull
little gulls
little gull
flock of little gulls
view of the Thames
greylag
female orange tip butterfly
speckled wood butterfly
greylag and gosling
dunlin
dunlins
sedge warbler
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