Yammer leads to Osprey

13th April - I was up and out early this morning only to find that there was localised fog all along the river Thames, which covered the pit as well, making viewing impossible.

I decided to walk to the SE corner and back to check for migrant passerines and found a noticeable fall of Willow Warblers and Blackcaps, with 3 of the former mainly in the SE corner and 7 of the latter.  I hung around on the west bank to see if the fog might lift, but at 7:30am gave up and moved off site.  The fog was extremely localised and even back at the car park it was noticeably clearer, with the Marlow road being totally clear.  I decided to check the Pump Lane area for any Wheatears, Redstarts or Ring Ouzels, though was massively over optimistic and drew a complete blank, in fact it was almost birdless!  On returning to my car at the bottom end of the lane near the polo field, I heard a Yellowhammer singing across the field to the east, which rather depressingly was a county year tick - my local birds seem to have dwindled to extinction this year.  I spent a couple of minutes trying to find its song perch and whilst doing so noticed an interesting large blob flapping just above the horizon of a distant wood.  Luckily I hadn't put my scope away and quickly got onto the bird, which proved to be an Osprey!  It was flapping purposely along just above the wood which was probably half a mile away, being followed half-heartedly by a Red Kite, before it disappeared from view behind further trees.  I looked at my phone which said 8:12am, so probably first saw the bird at 8:11am (more or less) and it looked to be flying N or NNW.  About an hour later, I found out that Dave P had seen an Osprey fly straight over and through Little Marlow GP at a reasonable height at 8:06am at a fog free site - if only I'd stayed!  Presumably the same bird and yet again I miss out on a patch Osprey, though not by much.  However, I'm glad I was lucky enough to see it at all - thanks to the singing Yammer for keeping me looking in the right direction!