Under the Heathrow flightpath (17th December 2012).

Just before the weekend, a rare transatlantic vagrant – a Buff-bellied Pipit – had been found feeding around the banks of the Queen Mother Reservoir in Berkshire/west London, under the flightpath of the many planes coming and going from Heathrow Airport (including those crossing the Atlantic!).

This species, which has previously been treated as conspecific with Rock and Water Pipit before the three were ‘split’ and each considered full species in their own right some years ago, was one I had never seen before, so with one so close (and arrangements in place to allow access to the permit only site it had chosen) I couldn’t resist the temptation.

We were watching the pipit almost immediately upon arrival, as it fed completely unconcerned almost at the feet of the appreciative birdwatchers gathered to see it.

It was remarkably tame and as long as there were no sudden movements would walk right past the small crowd, well within the minimum focus distance of most peoples cameras and binoculars – there was definitely no need for a telescope.

At first the pipit was in the sun on almost bare concrete at the edge of the reservoir...

In appearance Buff-bellied Pipit is somewhat intermediate between Rock Pipit and Meadow Pipit, with the dark legs and longish bill of Rock (and Water) Pipits, but with the bill having the finer, more pointed appearance more typical of Meadow Pipit. Some aspects of the plumage, in particular the well defined dark streaking on the buff toned underparts , are also reminiscent of Meadow Pipit – while the head and upperpart patterns are more like those of Rock & Water Pipits!

...but most of the time it was feeding on mossy ground in the shelter of the walled banks around the top of the reservoir - which unfortunately meant it was in shadow.

Apart from Pied Wagtails and Grey Wagtails sharing the banks, and a few Great Crested Grebes on the water, very few other birds were seen, although this was largely due to the fact that we were concentrating on the pipit! My brother did manage to pick out the Red-necked Grebe that had been present – although distantly. A Long-tailed Duck has also been present, but we didn’t manage to find that with a brief scan.

Another London rarity! (19th May 2012).

Dave and I started the morning at the Chingford reservoirs, where we carry out a monthly count of the waterbirds present as part of the Wetland Bird Survey (WeBS), which helps to assess national populations of wetland species.

It was a glorious sunny day – but this is the type of weather conditions that aren’t likely to bring the more interesting species that we might hope for to the reservoir. The good weather meant that visibility was good, and the water was calm and flat, but poorer conditions, including rain, are more likely to make passage birds like Black Terns and Little Gulls drop in as they pass over at this time of year.

We weren’t at all surprised to find that bird-wise the reservoirs were very quite. With most wintering birds having left, and few passage species present, we found that the count didn’t take too long at all. Neither reservoir has any islands, and both are concrete rimmed with bare, sheep grazed banks, so they aren’t attractive to most breeding species. A few pairs of Canada Geese do breed each year though, and a pair of Shelduck were present on the King George V Reservoir, with a new brood of 14 ducklings. Also of interest were a couple of pairs of Linnets on nearby rough ground, a few passage Common Sandpipers, Common Blue Damselflies and some flowers that had escaped being eaten by the sheep.

During the morning we had received news of a Bonaparte’s Gull, the North American counterpart of the Black-headed Gull, which had been found on the River Thames not too far away (the second record in the London Area, with the only previous one in 1983).

It proved elusive during the middle part of the day, after having been seen at Crossness and Barking Bay in the early and mid morning,  but with three other observers we found it again in Barking Bay as the tide ebbed late in the afternoon.

It was a 1^st summer individual, although it had yet to start showing any sign of a dark hood. In size and appearance it was something like a cross between a Black-headed Gull and a Little Gull, superficially more like a Black-headed Gull, but with a black bill, pink legs, an indistinct grey wash on the nape, and a different pattern on the wings – most noticeably the pale underside to the primaries. It’s behaviour and flight action was more reminiscent of Little Gull, which meant that it could be fairly easy to pick out from the Black-headed Gulls at times – not always though!

The above, rather poor 'phone-scoped' photo (taken through a telescope with my mobile phone) does show the Bonapartes Gull, rather than the more numerous Black-headed Gull (honest!). Better photos were taken by other observers, closer to the bird when it had been seen in the morning, and over the following days. Remarkably a second Bonaparte’s Gull later joined it!