Hello
Yesterday i spent 2 hours in the Gadwall hide covering one of the regular wildlife watches. It was a lovely morning, some nice wildlife and i got to chat to some visitors. A very obliging grey wagtail kept me company on and off as it kept returning to the stream mouth and shallows in front of the hide hunting for insects. The pintail though still not in full plumage is much more obvious now and was also showing well loafing and feeding straight out from the hide. I counted over 440 lapwing (that was tricky!), others present included snipe, green sandpiper, wigeon, teal, shoveler, tufted duck, mute swan, grey heron, cormorant, common gull, black headed gull, kingfisher, pied wagtail, little grebe, jay, jackdaw, cettis warbler and i heard a couple of water rail but sadly did not catch up with them. Common darter are still holding on in the autumn sunshine and basking in sunny spots.
On my way to the Gadwall hide I picked up a couple of redwing in the hawthorns near the draper hide along with a nice flock of goldfinch and a reed bunting feeding on the seed heads near the draper pond. While in the hide some visitors reported seeing a field fare but i was unable to pick it up on my way back to the visitor center. Though i did add pochard (some stunning looking males on the lagoon visible from the zig zag ramp) green woodpecker and gold crest to the list making a respectable 48 species for 2 and half hours, so a pretty good morning.
Our next wildlife watch is on Sunday 29 November 2-4 pm, Saturday 13 and Sunday 14 10 am-12 pm. Hope to see you then.
In case you had not heard. There have been some unusual birds in the local are recently with a caspian gull joining the roost at Amwell HMWT reserve and a rough-legged buzzard near Braughing, Hay street since 2 November, with short-eared owl in similar area last night. For more information on these sightings see http://www.hnhs.org/birds/ So if you are coming to visit us why not stop off on route and pick up something unusual.
Thanks
Vicky