YEARLISTING IN 2016

Compared to most recent years, when for example I recorded 165 species in the county in 2011, 187 in 2012 and 173 in 2013, this has been a particularly poor one with just 157 species recorded by mid December - one of my worst years on record

YEARLISTING IN BUCKINGHAMSHIRE

It's all over - 2012 has come to an end. I managed a total of 187 out of the 198 species recorded all told in Buckinghamshire - 94% of the total - probably my highest-ever annual tally.

The current record is 191 species achieved in 2006 and held jointly by both Rob Hill and Simon Nichols



Monday 21 November 2011

First-winter WILLOW TIT at Linford NR Woodland Hide Feeding Station

As I reported last week, I spent 45 minutes on site at The Woodland Hide and enjoyed excellent views of at least 3 black-capped tits - two very obvious and vocal Marsh Tits and another bird showing many characteristics of a WILLOW TIT. The nasal calls it was giving were very typical of Willow Tit and identical to those given by Willow Tits I have most recently looked at in the Thet Valley, Norfolk Breckland. I did have reservations over the paucity of the pale wing panels but as Richard Broughton has published, this feature is variable and the fact that this bird is most likely a first-winter, perhaps has a bearing on it.

Although Richard clearly has opposing views on this, and I certainly have no concrete evidence to back up my claims, I do have reservations over the appearance of these 'non-classic' individuals and I do worry that as the species becomes more and more outnumbered by Marsh Tits that peripheral birds are not hybridising. In Top Scrub at Ivinghoe Beacon for years we had breeding Willow and Marsh Tits side-by-side and they were very easy to differentiate. In April and May, the loud repetitive song of the Willow Tit was truly diagnostic and enlivened the scrub. At one time, Willow Tit was the commoner species, with as many as 8 territories along the ridge. Towards the end though, when numbers suddenly declined dramatically and Marsh Tits became to dominate, the vocalisations and appearance of the last remaining Willow Tits was not so clear-cut and they seemed to show mixed characters and much overlapping of features.

If we are to take vocalisations as the positive feature, then there is no doubt that the current bird wintering at the feeding station at HESC (Linford Lakes) is a WILLOW TIT. Although I have not recorded Willow Tits in Little Linford Wood since the last breeding pair in the 1990's, the species does still occur not far away across the border in Northamptonshire, in surprisingly good numbers. In 2010, there were 48 reports from 20 separate localities, with 6 individuals being trapped and ringed at Stanford Reservoir (on the Leicestershire border) between January and October. These 20 locations being Ravensthorpe Reservoir, Boddington Reservoir, Pitsford Reservoir, Stanwick GP, Storton's GP Northampton, Daventry CP, Burgh Hill, East Carlton CP, Weedon, Nobottle Wood, Fineshade Wood, Salcey Forest, Badby Wood, Glyn Davies Wood, Blueberry Farm Maidwell, Draughton, Maidwell Dale and Creston Capes (per Bob Bullock, Northamptonshire County Records).From this list, Salcey Forest is of the most relevant, virtually straddling the county border, and easily where this latest first-winter may have straggled from (Lee G R Evans)