The previous weekend was rather bad with torrential rain early on the Saturday-and a trip to the Alpine Garden Society show at Theydon was interesting with flooded roads. I did spend a bit of course, which meant a fair bit of time on Sunday getting things sorted out. I also had the Monday off, anticipating having plenty of work to do in the garden and I'm glad I did. It was nice and sunny, and the male Brimstone that visited while I was working was lovely to see. This was snapped with the phone.
This Saturday, I paid a visit to Amwell. It was a bit cool and cloudy, but at least it wasn't raining with a gale force wind.
The water levels are a bit on the high side thanks to all the recent rain, and it appears that the sluice is blocked, so unless something happens soon, there may not be much shoreline and islands available to attract passing waders. There are still a few Goldeneye, Teal and Wigeon hanging around. The lack of habitat meant that Lapwing and Snipe were missing, and the only bird of note from the viewpoint was a passing Parakeet that now seem to be well established here.
A gentle stroll down to Hollycross produced a few tits and several singing Cetii's warblers. From the bridge over the river I heard my first singing Chiffchaff of the year and just beyond a quick scan of Hollycross produced three Goosander-quite why they are here on such a shallow lake is a bit puzzling but they have been around for w while.
There wasn't much else around so I returned picking up a Treecreeper, but the woods were rather quiet. Siskin and redpoll are a bit scarce, though Barry had what might have been a Mealy redpoll earlier in the week.
I reached the viewpoint ant sat down and had a long chat with Bill. This enabled us to have very good views of the pair of Ravens that appeared around noon and spent some time in synchronised flying.
They were over the woods at least 500m away which was a bit much for the 800mm equivalent Panasonic lens, but I think they came out ok.
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