Amwell

Managed to get down to Amwell for the first time in several weeks. Absolutely freezing, barely above zero.
Got the drake Pintail quite quickly, and the other regular ducks soon followed. Gull numbers seemed a bit low, and with the frozen mud there were no waders apart from a few Lapwing, and virtually no small birds to be seen.
After a while, the I managed to locate the drake Mandarin on the island-it swam out briefly tailed by a female before returning.
With no Smew visible I thought I'd head up to Tumbling Bay, but got distracted by calling Siskin in the old picnic area. Counted a good 50, along with a few tits, but no Redpolls were present. Up at Tumbling Bay there was nothing much at all, just a small number of the commoner ducks. Ran into Bill, Barry and William on the way back and had a chat before going along to Hollcross Lake. Thanks to Julie and her scope had great views of the three Red Crested Pochards and three Red Head Smew.
We all met up at the watchpoint  before many left for the waxwings down at Stanstead St Margarets.  The rest of us eventually found two more Red Heads and a fine drake Smew at the far southern end of the main lake.
Not long after the cold got to me and I retuned home.

Tucking into lunch the Blackcap put in an appearance again.