I arrived a bit later than usual and as i crossed the bridge, Bill called me over-the Bearded Tit which had eluded me all year was showing in front of the watch point. Unfortunately as soon as I got the camera up it was off. I saw it again shortly after and it popped up onto a reed head again and showed quite well, but the wind was causing camera focussing issues. Phil and Simon appeared and about half an hour after our sighting it was picked up distantly in the middle of the reed bed, luckily Simon had his scope so everyone present got to see it.
The water levels are incredibly high, the navigation only has to rise another foot and the towpath will flood, and apparently it already has at Stanstead St Margerets. The old river is very high and is at least four times wider than usual. This may have affected the birds present, with few ducks and gulls. In fact the only large gull was a single Lesser Black Back, there were no Wigeon and very few Goldeneye. Six Snipe was a reasonable number in view of the lack of mud. Up to eight Common Buzzards were seen, along with a single Sparrowhawk and Red Kite.
i went down to Hollycross bumping into Barry on the way-nothing much on his circuit of the area. The feeders were as active as ever, with lots of Chaffinch, Goldfinch, and single Great Spotted Woodpecker Marsh Tit and Coal Tit. A bright pink male Lesser Redpoll looked superb in the sun but was too far away for the camera, unlike one of the buzzards.
On the way back over the river, a large Long Tail Tit flock proved diverting. I mentioned to another birder that a Treecreeper was often with them, looked down and found it almost immediately. It never really showed well enough to get a good image.
The Siskin flock in the wood was worth visiting as they were feeding at eye level and looked really nice with the sun on them.
I got back to the watchpoint to find all the familiar faces had departed and had a chat with a local about the flooding. During the conversation I heard some pings but could not locate the bearded Tit, but shortly after being joined by another photographer we located it at the base of the reeds in front of us. It was hard to see at times and after losing it for a bit I scanned the woods opposite picking up a distant raptor. Preoccupied by the Bearded Tit I failed to stay with it and only after it had gone realised it was a Peregrine.
I stuck around for a bit, being joined by Ron Cousins (who got the Tit a bit later) and left at 1230. I had intended to go back via the A1 again but met a couple of Stevenage guys who had come down via Aston and Watton so went home the usual way. As it turned out the A602 was open despite the information on the RAC app I had earlier checked.
No comments:
Post a Comment