Autumn Colours

Flu jab today. Took Mum down to the surgery quite early, and then went on to Amwell arriving well before 9am. It was rather damp, particularly the grass, but improved once the Sun came out.
Initially Barry and Chris were birding, and Graham White was present, doing some survey work.

In the process, everything was flushed of course, but he did kick up a few Snipe for us. Otherwise it was a bit quiet. Some Wigeon are in, a few Swallows, Meadow Pipits and Skylarks were going over, and the female Stonechat that turned up recently put an appearance.
I eventually went down to Hollycross and spent some time there. A few migrant Hawkers and darters are still around, and as many have noted, there were plenty of Red Admirals on the wing. The sunny side of the walkway was very productive. The large tit flock included three Marsh Tits, two Blackcaps and several Chiffchaffs. A few Jays and Blackbirds were feeding here as well.
The trees are colouring up nicely.

Back home I had a quick look around the garden, finding a couple of nice subjects.

Sunspot

Since Sunday, I haven't been out birding, but have been busy pottering in the garden instead. Today was very clear, so I did what I have been meaning to do for some time and try the Panasonic GX8 on the Sun. Unfortunately there is only one spot on there at the moment, and the air wasn't particularly steady.

Norfolk

We haven't gone up to the Norfolk coast for quite a while, and as a few things had been seen, Colin and I decided to travel up on Sunday. There had been a lot of overnight rain, and it was quite misty and murky, but by the time we got near the coast it had cleared and we actually had a nice day weather-wise.
Titchwell was busy by the time we arrived with a lot of cars in the car parks. A stroll up to the fresh marsh produced a Robins and Chiffchaffs in the bushes but not much else apart from a family of Bearded Tits. We were told that the Red Necked Phalarope had apparently disappeared behind one of the islands-it later transpired that it had flown off. So one of our targets had gone. Lots of Ruff, some Godwits, Golden Plover, Avocets and Dunlin were on the marsh, and I picked out a couple of juvenile Mediterranean Gulls.
The sea was a bit quiet, despite the light north easterlies. Gannets and Common Scoter were flying around, and there were a couple of lingering Sandwich Terns. We missed some Skuas and divers which were seen much earlier.
A spell in Parrinder Hide failed to produce a lone Purple Sandpiper hiding in the vegetation on the salt marsh. We also missed Little Stints here. Several Pied Wagtails were checked in the vain hope that one would be a Citrine.
On the Fen Trail, I spent some time looking for Willow Emeralds, which were not showing but got a nice image of a Common Darter. No-one managed to locate the Yellow Browed Warbler that had been around for a day or two.

News of an Arctic Warbler at Wells Wood would have been tempting, were it not for the high cost of parking, added to which it can be hard work finding anything, so we went to Cley instead.
Here we were able to finally get a year tick with a Red Necked Phalarope, but unfortunately it remained on the far side of Simmond's Scrape and the distant photos weren't all that great. Had a couple of Curlew Sandpipers and Little Stints, a few Snipe and a Yellow Wagtail, but we didn't stay long.
We finished up at Cavenham Heath just in time for a brief thunderstorm.

Once the rain had cleared we scanned the field near the river, picking up 13 Stone Curlews, though numbers were far higher as 30+ had been seen earlier.

Returning to the car I got a nice surprise for the plane spotters, with an OV10 Bronco flying over.
I last saw one of these at Mildenhall some time around 1979.

White Winged Black Tern at Tyttenhanger

A White Winged Black Tern was found at Tyttenhanger on Tuesday. Its a rather rare bird for Herts, with only seven previous records, usually at Wilstone/Tring and two together at Hillfield. Usually they don't linger, so most birders went down that evening, or early the next morning as it roosted overnight.
I didn't. Stevenage to Tyttenhanger involves going up and down the two lane  section of the A1M which features on the traffic news most rush hours, and a short very busy stretch of the A414 at London Colney. Basically I was stuffed, I had a couple of appointments as well, immediately after work so there was no realistic chance of seeing it.
It lingered into Thursday, my last day at work for a week so there was hope. At breakfast on Friday, Tom Spellar put out a message that it was still there, and once the worst of the school run was over I departed (via Knebworth as the A1 was as usual very slow) and got to London Colney just after 9am.
It was a nice, cool sunny morning with a bit of a breeze, and Robins ticking in the hedges as I walked rapidly down to the main pit where I found Rupert Evershed scoping from the gate. He mentioned the two Ruff-a nice bonus Herts year list and pointed me towards Willow Farm lake where I soon joined a couple of guys up from London.
We walked along the Fishing Lake bank, without seeing a great deal apart from large numbers of House Martins, along with Sand Martins and Swallows. Seeing a couple of birders on the causeway I saw the familiar face of Lee Evans, and it was clear the Tern wasn't showing. Rather despondently we
arrived at the causeway, and at the same time the Tern appeared, flying around only a few feet away from us. Over the course of the next hour we were treated to stunning views as it did innumerable circuits of the small lake, dropping down to the water in front of us from time to time.
For the first time this year I regretted taking the GX8 and 100-400mm lens as the bird was too close, too fast and too agile. I had to back the zoom off to 200mm and even then I had problems. The 300mm Nikkor and the D3s would have been a better choice, but I managed to obtain a lot of excellent images.

Lee mentioned a male Redstart in the big field hedge and he also wanted to see the Ruff so we both went back to the main pit. No sign of the Ruff so walked up the hedge without seeing anything apart from a few Reed Buntings. One of the locals was at the top and pointed out where the Redstart had been, and Lee went off to the viewpoint as the Ruff were visible from there-as was the Tern, now roosting on the mud.
Eventually we got good views of the Redstart low down from a range of about 100yds, occasionally perched in the hedge, but sometimes dropping onto the ground to feed. I eventually managed to get a bit closer and got a few images, before being joined by Alan Meadows and a few other Tern twitchers.

Amwell-its been a while

I paid a visit to Amwell yesterday-the first for some time. It hasn't been very exciting for the regulars over the last few months, compared to other sites in the county, and I've found that Rye Meads has been a better bet for a nice selection of birds recently.
There has been a lot of criticism this year, in particular, over the way the reserve has been managed, which eventually made its way onto social media, and it's impact on the birds and wildlife. On my last visit, very dense thickets of Purple Loosestrife had taken over the islands, and much of the waters edge, and the willows and alders in the reed-bed were getting rather large ( a great way of demonstrating how wetlands evolve into woodland, but not good when reeds are supposed to be one of the more important habitats). Hollycross has been quite poor as well, with many of the pools overgrown, and the meadow turning into rank grassland. I have been told that impacted the breeding of wildfowl and terns (no waders bred as far as I know) which has been poor this year. Judging by the changes since my last visit some of the concerns have been taken on board and steps are being taken to improve matters-the islands have been cleared, as has the area in front of the viewpoint, and some  of the larger shrubs have been removed on Hollycross, opening up some areas.
The usual Sunday regulars were present when I arrived, some of whom I haven't seen in months so it was nice to catch up and chat. They eventually went off to do their usual circuit so I spent the morning chatting with Bill. We didn't have many birds on the lake, duck numbers were very low, though there seemed to be a few Teal in. It was mainly Canada Geese, a few Greylags, Coot and Cormorants. A few Buzzards, Kites and Sparrowhawks were up in the air. Hirundines seemed to be coming through now and again with good numbers of House Martins, some Swallows and one or two Sand Martins. Judging by the fact that sometimes birds were heading up-river suggested that some of the flocks were doing circuits.
Bill and I eventually wandered down to Hollycross, stopping off at the Bittern pool for a quick scan (an injured Bittern has apparently over summered). Picked up a few butterflies-Speckled Wood, Red Admiral, Comma and Small White, on the way. More duck were on Hollycross-mainly Pochard with a few Grebes. Bill showed me the the work that has been carried out-we can now see the channel that runs under the small bridge which was completely over grown, and hopefully this will be expanded and some of the other areas will be cleared. Didn't see any dragonflies apart from a few Common Darters and a fast moving metallic green damsel of some kind-could have been a Willow Emerald.
By the time we got back to the view-point Mike Ilett had turned up(fresh back from a trip to Barra for the American Redstart) and soon after Phil arrived with the dogs. Lots more geese were flying in and we also had the regular Hobby hunting over the wood-a bird that has been rather hard to find locally this year. We also had a rather odd hybrid goose which looked a bit Emperor or Blue Snow Goose, but the consensus is that it is some sort of Barnacle cross, maybe with Ross's. Looked a lot better than most hybrids.

Queen of Spain

I remember a Queen of Spain Fritillary at Minsmere in I think 1995, and was very jealous of the photos taken by the then rare bird photographers, as I never got to see it. I thought I might have a chance of seeing one a couple of years ago when they were reported over a couple of years near Chichester. The sightings were publicised late in the year, but unfortunately they were not seen the following year.
Four were seen at a farm near Peacehaven last weekend, and by the time Colin and I could get down yesterday, one male remained. We followed the instructions on the Sussex Butterfly Conservation page and parked at the farm, and only had to walk a few yards to where the small crowd was surrounding the butterfly.
It proved to be rather flighty, ranging over a fair bit of ground but given time we were all able to obtain very satisfactory views and images.

The meadow proved to be very good for butterflies with at least four Clouded Yellows (my first for a couple of years) large numbers of all three whites, Brown Argus and Adonis Blues were abundant, and there were a few Small Coppers,Common Blues and Chalkhill Blues. No vannesids though, which was rather unusual.
I met a guy there who gave us instructions on how to get to Castle Hill, and we met up with him when we got there. Classic steep chalk downland hills and valleys, and lots of Adonis Blues, Small Heaths and Chalkhill Blues. Thanks to his guidance, and another person we met when we got onto the right hillside, I managed to see three Wartbiters.

Interesting flowers included Round Headed Rampion, various Hawkweeds and Autumn Ladies Tresses. A few Autumn Gentians were still flowering, as were Common Milkwort, Centaury and Eyebright.