Saturday 17 March 2012

Damp, but Spring is Here

 The last few days, Amwell has had some decent birds-Gargany, Avocets, Dunlin plus a few Sand martins, but the roosting Caspian Gulls seem to have gone. Not been able to get down for any of these unfortunately. With the weekend promising to be a bit wet, and not wanting to spend much on a speculative trip we decided to have a quiet weekend, so I thought the rain might bring a migrant or two into Amwell. Maybe the Avocets might return, or even one of the many Glossy Ibis now turning up.
 Well the promised rain ended up being a bit of a damp squib-there was a bit when I left, some drizzle at Amwell and a couple of brief heavy showers when I got home. First decent bird was the Red Kite about 15 feet above the car at Watton at Stone, but Amwell seemed to be very quiet with only a couple of cars parked. Not much from the watchpoint, still a lot of Shoveller and Teal, and there are a few Wigeon lingering. The white headed Cormorants look smart collecting nesting material.
Noticed Bill and Tony in th main hide so went over to join them. Heard my first Chiffchaff singing from the picnic area and then another two from the feeding area-one showed very well in the trees above me. Ended up hearing maybe five or six in total.
From the hide, got a pretty good view of the Baikal type hybrid, saw a few Snipe, Shelduck and a Little Egret. Eventually the Oystercatchers flew in and there was a brief courtship display before they carried on feeding. At least three Cettis Warblers were singing from the reeds around the boardwalk, but little else was seen or heard before I left just after mid-day.

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