On Saturday 22nd I went for a walk around Aston End in the afternoon. It is usually a fairly quiet time of day, but being fairly warm it was pleasant. Unfortunately I noticed that work is starting east of Gresley Way for the new houses being put up, so a nice area of fields will soon disappear and generate a lot of disturbance in the Beane valley. Talking of which, the river is barely flowing despite the wettish previous couple of months, so the development will naturally been even more abstraction.
The walk was a bit of a slog and it was hard finding much of interest. The usual big Fieldfare flock appears to have moved on, along with all the Redwings and I couldn't find any Linnets, though there was a decent (at least for these days) gathering of at least 10 Chaffinch and 25 Yellowhammers in one of the riverside trees-no Brambling though.
The following morning I had considered going up to Therfield and beyond, but news of a Water Rail in Fairlands meant a late change of plans. Being the first for several years (and I hadn't seen the previous) I was keen to see it-it was in the muddy reeds of the balancing pond. A long spell along with a lad and his mother failed to produce the bird so I had a quick walk around the main lakes, producing 9 Siskin, 4 Greenfinch and 15 Redwings. The usual 'Caspian' Gull X307 was also present.
The afternoon of the 29th and I was back in Fairlands Valley. Another long wait by the balancing pond was enlivened by three drake Teal. The circuit around the lakes produced the usual selection of gulls and ducks, and I returned through the woods to the pond where there was another long wait. I was just about ready to quit when I noticed the Water Rail at the norther end and largely out of view. Luckily I was able to move round to get a better view through the willows and grabbed a few shots.
Sunday was a planned trip to Abberton. It had been a bit frosty overnight, but it meant a bright sunny and cold morning. Starting off at Layer de le Hay, there were good numbers of wildfowl including several Goosanders, and the redhead Smew flew in while we were there. A Rock Pipit was also good. The nearby farm sheep field held 7 Cattle Egret. On Layer Breton, there were lots more wildfowl to scan through, and one of the drake Scaups showed quite well. A spell around the visitor centre produced the Long Tailed Duck that we had missed earlier but there was no sign of any divers or grebes. At Billets Farm screen we were told that the White Fronted Geese were off de le Hay so we went back there to find 29+ along with some Barnacle Geese.
A new spot for me was at Abberton Church on the east side-we were told that the Bewicks Swans were here along with Red Necked and Slavonian Grebes. Thanks to disturbance everything was well offshore. I managed to pick the swans out at a great distance among some much larger Mutes, and while there were a few suspects we couldn't be sure of confidently identifying any of the grebes.
After a bit of lunch we paid a visit to Copt Hall where I was hoping to see Short Eared Owl and Hen Harrier on the salt marsh. Had it not been sunny and lots of dog walkers on the embankments we might have been lucky. The low tide probably didn't help much either, so there was no point walking down to the estuary to check for the Great Northern seen in recent weeks.
