Weather: cold, wintry showers. From 3:15pm.
Another trip to the Aylesbury layby to hopefully see the short-eared owls again, this time a bit earlier. However a day that started off with snow followed by a torrential downfall (at least in London) had me thinking that the owls would stay at hidden away out of it, but by mid-afternoon some sunshine convinced me it was worth a visit.
I arrived & joined a couple of others, the sun still shining but unfortunately after 15 minutes or so, & after admiting a bright rainbow, the black clouds on the horizon, heavy with precipitation, moved closer bringing their rainfall with them which sent me scurrying back to the car. I had only managed to see a couple of Kestrel & a lone Buzzard in the far trees, & nothing but Crows & Woodpigeon in the fields.
The first heavy shower passed by & from the car still nothing could be seen in the fields as dusk came on quickly. Another shower soon followed & it was enough to convince me that the owls would not be appearing this evening, however because I was nearby I thought I'd pop in on Wilstone & see if could pick out anything from the wall in the gloom, or even maybe see a little owl, a few of which are occasionally reported.
At Wilstone, from the reservoir's wall, I was struck by the large number of Black-Headed Gulls roosting on the water, hundreds at least. Also in the gathering gloom I picked out Tufted Duck, Mute Swan, Great-Crested Grebe, Pochard & Coot.
Finally I decided to call in on Marsworth to see if I could catch the big starling roost which I'd also read about, though I suspected that I would be too late. And so it proved to be, though I could hear them chattering away in the reeds I had missed any spectacular aerial acrobatics, however a Sparrowhawk zipping low through the trees over the reeds meant it wasn't a complete loss, & there were also a few Shoveler on the water.
12 species.
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