A hectic Icy 24 hours - Totteridge Valley, Staines Reservoir - 10th - 11th February 2018

Friday afternoon saw my dad and I take a trip to the local garden centre to fill up on bird seed as we had almost completely run out. I decided to take this opportunity to be given a lift to my local patch the Totteridge Valley. The first thing that I noticed when we arrived was that there was a large flock of mainly Common Gulls up in the air over us making the sort of movements you would expected a starling murmaration to perform. It wasn't until after I had set off from the garden centre and into the valley that I found the culprit. A  large bulky raptor came towards me flying from the general direction of the substation and when I got my binoculars on it I was surprised to see a female Peregrine with some sort of prey item, which I think was a black-headed gull, but I am not too sure. I later saw what I presume was the same Peregrine over the Owl Field near Darlands Lake. This is quite a decent record for the area and a species that in recent times has slowly been increasing.
​I then continued down Burtonhole Lane and into old Grasshopper Warbler Field. Here I sat and waited for a while as the Gull flock slowly trickled back in, but with no sign of anything interesting with them I carried on to the sound of Redwings which by now had started to gather before heading into their roost.  (Pictured Below)

I then carried on my journey and headed along the Folly Brook. The pond in John's field was still full of water, but no birds could be seen there this time. A pair of Teal were feeding in the Folly Brook just a bit further up from John's Pond. (Pictured Below)

I then headed onto Darlands Lake where a group of 11 Teal had gathered and the 8 males could be seen and heard displaying to the group of 3 females that were on the lake. Upon closer inspection I noticed 4 Drake Mandarin Ducks and eventually when they came out of the shadow I could see that they were joined by 3 females. (Pictured Badly Below)

I decided to have a look round the back of the lake and in with a mixed Tit flock I found a couple of Goldcrests and also a fine Treecreeper. (just about Pictured Below)

Next I headed into owl field to see what was about. At first I have to admit there was very little except an extraordinary sunset. 

Eventually the field started to come to life. Out of nowhere not one but five Bullfinch exploded from the dense brambles down to my left and flew up calling. As this happened I noticed some smaller birds starting to circle the end of the field and to my surprise a flock of Meadow Pipit had started to descend for the night. It took me a bit of scanning, but after a while I realised that there was also a Reed Bunting in the flock and once they had all settled the Bunting decided to show itself briefly before disappearing into the undergrowth. 
​A Pair of Common Buzzard had started to circled the line of trees on the right hand side of the field and a female Sparrowhawk gave a quick flythrough. 
​Fieldfare and Redwing also called overhead as flocks of them filled the sky as they headed to roost alongside several hundred Carrion Crows and Jackdaw.

Above: Common Buzzard
​Below: Sparrowhawk

I then moved onto Cow field where I waited and watched for a bit. Rather oddly only five Rooks came into roost which is way down on the 112 I record back in December, same with the Canada Geese with only 26 into roost rather than the previous total of 120. All rather strange. I then head up the path to Long Pond whilst taking in the remains of the sunset.

Whilst I was waiting for the bus what happened next was quite unexpected. I spotted something flying in from over the farm building on the other side of the road and it proceeded to fly almost straight at me and gave me some decent views under the light of the lampposts as it battled the wind. It was in fact a Barn Owl and It then dived into the field behind the bus stop and proceeded to hunt. This was the first one seen in the area since early October so it made the sighting even more special and it was also a welcome addition to my ever growing year list.

​Early Saturday morning I had preplanned with my Dad a trip to Staines Reservoir for a spot of twitching. A Red Kite was a good bonus bird from the car. As we pulled up to the site I got my first glimpse of Staines Reservoir and I have to admit it wasn't quite what I was expecting. 

When we got up onto the causeway which splits the North and South Basin we were met by a group of birders busily searching the bank and when I asked them why, they told me that the Lark hadn't been located yet this morning. This was just my luck as everywhere I go I am always told that something has just flown off or it went overnight etc. So I prepared myself to take on board the potentially bad news and started to scan the water to see what was about. 
​A large group of Wigeon and Coot were resting on the causeway's bank and also a few Teal were dabbling in the corner of the North Basin. 
​It wasn't long until someone half way along the causeway shouted at us to get down to the other end as it had been found. 

Some rather surprisingly slow walking to the other end resulted in being put straight onto the North American Horned Lark and I was able to watch it running about on the moss covered bank below. It was amazing and played ball, however my fingers were now numb and absolutely throbbing from the ice cold wind that was blowing in from South Basin.
​Occasionally the Lark was joined by a Meadow Pipit or Pied Wagtail, however most of the time it preferred to be by itself and kept flicking little bits of mud and moss from the ground as it searched for its food. 
​Rather unsurprisingly this bird was a lifer for me as it is only the second record for the UK and the first record for London. At the moment this bird is considered as a Subspecies of the British equivalent which is a Shore Lark, however when they are eventually split I will be able to say that I saw the North American Horned Lark before I saw a Shore Lark (as I have never seen a Shore Lark before!)  (Horned Lark Pictured Below)

Above: Horned Lark with Pied Wagtail behind

After a bit of time my Dad and I headed back along the causeway towards the car and hopefully some sort of warmth. Along the way I got the chance to have a look out for some of the rare wildfowl that had been about, however I only managed to find 15 Great Crested Grebes, 2 Little Grebe, a flock of Shoveler, Gadwall, Teal, Wigeon and Coot. There were also the odd Tufted Duck dotted around and a rather lonely drake Pochard. Near the end of the causeway there were also a group of 5 Linnet feeding on some seed that someone must have placed there.

Above: Gadwall
​Below: Drake Tufted Duck

Above: Wigeon
​Below: Drake Pochard

My Dad and I then headed on to the University of Reading Applicant Day where a few Red Kite were seen and also an Egyptian Goose with two rather early Goslings.
​And so this rounds off a great 24 hour period in which my London List has reached 170 Species, the Totteridge Valley year list has reached 65 and also my Life List has rather more importantly got to 203! So, do I think I will go on another twitch? Well, we will just have to wait and see!