A couple of hours at Little Marlow GP (1 Viewer)

Hi all , I spent a couple of hours late morning / early afternoon at the Little Marlow GP , also known as Spade Oak GP , today , very warm , humid and noisy !! . I actually lost count of the Common Terns and their young as there just seemed just too many , plus they never seem to stay in one place for long , plunge fishing and feeding hungry noisy juveniles all the time . Loads of gulls there too , blackheaded , common , herring and lesser black backed , 2 Little Ringed Plovers and a Dunlin all sitting on the large spit cause by the washing out of the gravel . Walking further round I found quite a few parties of Long Tailed tits together with adult and juv Blue and Great tits , and a single Tree Creeper , almost like a winter foraging party ! . On the side by the railway line a Whitethroat was perching and feeding quietly on its own , and a stock dove was sitting on the line itself . Along the hawthorn hedge that runs parellel with the railtrack small birds flitted about , difficult to say what they all were , the vegetation at this time of year is too dense , but the newish reed stands were alltogether different , they were alive with Reed Warblers , I counted 19 adults and juvs . These reedbeds seem to be a newish addition to this pit , not too big , the water depth at the edge falls away steeply , but they are long , going for quite a few hundred yards . The main lake itself has changed a lot over the years and now has more geese than it ever had , large groups of greylags abound together with egyptian geese and the ever present canadas . Kingfishers also seemed very active today , at least 5 were arrowing back and forth from the low overhanging trees and shrubs . Another thing of note for this site is the quantity of butterflies , I counted 13 species including my favourite , the small copper , also .......Wall , Gatekeeper , Comma , Common Blue , Holly Blue , Meadow Brown , Peacock , Small Tortoiseshell , Small Skipper and large white , plus cinnabar moth ( and caterpillar ) and 6 spot burnet moth . All in all a good few hours during what is usually a quiet time of the year .

Ashley.

Quiet but getting less so, I think. We had a marvellous two weeks in Northumberland and saw plenty, but, as you say, some of the songbirds need vast amounts of patience to discern.

A fine report, too - thanks!

Ashley

Great report. Now I know what to expect!

I noticed Holly (is that her name) made it into your avatar :t:

Hi Helen , thought I'd check the whole area out before our visit there , had Reed Warblers just 6 feet away from my face , didn't even need bins , more intent on feeding young than worrying about me ! . Holly asked nicely if she could appear on this forum , who am I to deny her that little bit of fame ................. :-O

aww...that's nice of you regarding Holly.

Reed warblers so close? Wow, I'll have to take my camera along when we visit.