Saturday 26 April 2014

White Wagtail

I thought that with the overnight rain, southerly winds etc that today would be a good day in the Lea Valley. Several Whimbrel, Barwits and so on have been seen, plus a long staying Ruff at Amwell. Always the chance of Arctic Terns as well.
It was still drizzling when i got to Amwell, and was rather cold to boot. Large numbers of hirundines over the pit-many more Swallow and House Martins now, plus a few Sand Martins as well. Common Tern numbers building, now 11 birds, but the rafts are occupied by Black headed Gulls. The two Little Ring Plovers are still around, along with a pair of Redshank and the Oystercatchers are still coming and going.
Had two yellowish wagtails flying away at a great distance-I presume they were Greys, and much later two short tailed wagtails went south, but no-one could get anything on them. We wanted Yellow but suspect they were Pied.
Jay did pick up a White Wagtail on the mud, but it only stayed a short while and it was too far away for a decent image.



Jay and Bill eventually left so I went over to the White Hide with Phil being joined by Dave from Barnet. Hoped to locate the elusive Ruff which was still present first thing but despite long searches and the regular flushing by raptors it seems to have departed.
Spent a bit of time photographing the terns, and the 'photogenic' Egyptian Geese.



No comments: