Snow Again

Thanks in part to the very dry air at work, I've got a bit of a chest problem, and am at home.

We have had a fair bit of snow again, along with very cold (for Hertfordshire) temperatures. Its not expected to get above -2 celsius in the afternoon according to some forecasts.

Unlike some gardens, I have not had an influx of birds-just the usual quantity of Sparrows, Tits, Blackbirds etc. Did see a Wren early on which is not often seen and there are a lot of Gulls and corvids flying around overhead.

Shrike Dipping

Only just got round to writing about Sundays trip.

The surprise news on New Years Day was the Brown Shrike re-appearing at Staines Moor having gone missing during the cold spell. It showed for a while on Friday and Saturday, so Colin and I decided to go down on the Sunday and hope it would show.

The one major difference to Staines Moor from my last visit (apart from the freezing ground) was the large number of Parakeets in the area. Last time I met very few people who had seen any, as the big roost in the area had gone many years ago, yet on Sunday they were one of the most abundant species around. Unfortunately, the Shrike did not put in an appearance for us, and as I write has not been seen for four days now. We did see several Stonechat, and Fieldfares, Green Woodpeckers and Greenfinches, and one of the wintering Water Pipits flew over.

We eventually called a halt and moved of to Ash Ranges near Guildford which was the home of a wintering Great Grey Shrike. This very bleak area of heath holds a small population of Dartford Warbler, which had been severely knocked back by last winters freeze, but several pairs had been seen by others over the course of the morning, along with Crossbill flocks. After about an hour of searching, I found the Shrike in a small dip, unfortunately Colin was a long way off and did not hear me call. I tried to move closer, but lost it when a dog walker lost control of his dogs, and despite searching for a long time, we never found it again. We never found anything else either.

We ended up at Amwell, where a Bittern had been showing quite well, but I missed it. I did show Colin three Red Crested Pochards, a female Smew and a small flock of Siskin and Redpolls. Large areas of the main lake were iced up, allowing good views of the gull roost as it built up, but nothing unusual was located.

New Years Day

Having not seen Colin for two months-thanks to weather, ill health and so on, it was nice to be able to get the new year off to a good start with a trip out. As there were no major rarities to go for, we decided on a fairly short trip to the Fens.

We started off at Coveney near Ely, where a Rough Legged Buzzard has been seen intermittently-in fact its believed to be the same one I saw near Royston last winter. Despite searching for some time, with a bitterly cold wind and the occasional snow flurry, we could not find it. Several flocks of Redwing and Fieldfare were found in the hedgerows, with the occasional lark and pipit flying over.

Leaving the area, and heading for Pyemoor, we soon encountered herds of Wild Swans. Large numbers of Whoopers, and smaller numbers of Bewick's were feeding in beet fields, and occasionally flying past us. Another flock held a large number of Greylag and Canada Geese too. Nearby, we found small coveys of Grey and Red Legged Partridge and a small flock of Golden Plover.

The Ouse Washes at Pyemoor were largely empty of wildfowl, due to the wind most duck were sheltering in the lee of the west bank a long way off. A small flock of Barnacle Geese were a bit of a surprise. There were few small birds around, apart from the occasional Reed Bunting and we did not see any owls or birds of prey apart from many Kestrels and a single Buzzard.

We stopped of at Welney briefly, but there was little to see on the feeders from the centre and most of the reserve was shut.

We then headed off to Graffham Water.

The first thing we encountered was a Great Northern Diver swimming just offshore. We also found a few Redshank and Dunlin feeding along the muddy edge, but there apart from some Mallard, Gadwall and Goldeneye there was not much else on view so we headed off to the dam.

The Velvet Scoter that had been present for several weeks showed quite well among the grebes and Cormorants but we failed to find any of the other species that had been around like Red Necked Grebe and Common Scoter.

Christmas Eve

Did a bit of last minute shopping in town today. Rather dicey underfoot as pavements and car parks are just sheets of ice though it is starting to thaw.

Heard a few Redwings go west over the Stevenage leisure park and a pair of Pied Wagtails were feeding on the ice edge. Not a lot else here, even the feral pigeons and crows have all but gone.

Driving home via Chells Manor, I passed the Emperors Head pub and a flock of about twenty birds flew south. Probably Starlings, but this area has been good for Waxwings in recent years. Have not heard of any sightings this winter so far.

Winter Scenes

A few more wintery scenes.

Snow

Last night we had a big fall of snow, similar to what we got in February. As a result, most of the town seems to have ground to a halt. Luckily I had the day off and could for once enjoy what is these days a pretty rare event.

Having cleared about four inches of the stuff off the feeders, disturbing the waiting Robin, I spent some time waiting to see what would arrive. Seven House Sparrows, two Starlings, two Blue Tits and a Dunnock came down over the next hour-pretty normal but I did get two Great Tits which are not at all frequent. One of them sat for a while on a fence post and proceeded to bathe in the snow, something I have not noticed before.

At 0930 I went for a walk out to the countryside east of Stevenage. Most of the time, the snow was around four inches deep, but in a few places there were drifts waist deep. Birds were of course rather infrequent. A few Skylarks could be heard moving west, and two Lapwing were a surprise. More expected were thrushes and tits. I found a large flock of Long Tailed Tits which also contained a few Blue and Great Tits. There were several small flocks of Fieldfare, and every now and again I encountered Redwings, Blackbirds and the occasional Mistle Thrush. A single Kestrel was the only bird of prey.

Another quiet one

With the iffy weather and a lack of exciting new stuff to go and photograph we decided to save a bit of petrol money and have another quiet weekend.
So yesterday morning I went down to Amwell for the usual social gathering and hopefully a few decent birds. It was a nice sunny start, though it gradually got colder and by mid day the sun was starting to go as well. The water is a lot higher than when I was last here-a combination of the higher sluice gate and recent heavy rain. As a result, there is not much left of the islands for loafing wildfowl and waders. The reeds have been cut in places leaving long channels which are now starting to get a bit wet and this has produced feeding opportunities for waders and smaller birds.
There were a lot of early thrush movements-mainly Fieldfare with a smaller amount of Redwing, but the first decent bird was a Chiffchaff seen in one of the willows. Some of us then went down to Hollycross Lake to see the Red Crested Pochard-only the one this time, but stopped off on the way at a clump of birches first. Did not take long for a couple of Redpolls to appear, along with a Siskin. The latter is still a regular winter sight, but the days of big Redpoll flocks in the Lea Valley are a thing of the past. We also enjoyed prolonged views of one of the resident Cetti's Warblers and a brief Redwing in the bushes.
Back at the viewpoint, gull numbers were building, but nothing unusual was picked up, a few Snipe were seen-no Jacks yet and in one of the reed-bed cuts a Water Rail fed along with a number of Reed Buntings.