Amwell

The usual morning social gathering with a bit of birding now and again. The Boys From Brazil (Barry, Jan and Phil) are back and apparently had a great time. Jan is in the Netherlands twitching Baltimore Oriole (been there for weeks), and Oriental Turtle Dove.

I arrived just after two drake Smew flew off, but at least I did get decent views of one of the Bitterns perched in the reeds. Duck numbers seem to have dropped now that the ice has gone, though we now have two Shelduck. Also one or two Cetti's Warblers have survived the freeze and have started to sing.

At one point something spooked the Lapwing and we were surprised to count twenty five Snipe go up with them. Unfortunately they were all Common, and despite our hopes, no Jacks were with them. Have yet to see any other waders here-there should be one or two Redshank by now.

A walk to Hollycross produced one Red Crested Pochard, though some of us did miss a second Bittern as well as a Kingfisher. On the way back, the picnic area produced more than twenty Siskin with a few Goldfinch. There is supposed to be a Redpoll or two still, but we did not locate it.