Over the course of six days, Jimmy & I have visited Lee Valley twice. Rainham Marshes twice then a trip a little further afield when we went to Easneye in Hertfordshire looking for a Ring Ouzel. Easneye is just a mile from Amwell so we looked in there as well. First up it's a tick over at Lee valley when a Garganey turns up on Hall Marsh Scrape and we have great views when the bird is found on arrival. A few ticks are seen while here a Little Ring Plover was seen on the same scrape as the Garganey, on the walk back Willow Warbler was seen & a pair of Kingfisher were spotted near their nest to give us lovely views.
Back over the Lee Valley early next day as a White Stork had dropped in at Hall Marsh Scrape the previous evening. when we arrived Brian was already on-site and had the bird in view to make the tick an easy one for us, not a lifer but nice to see, the next day news came through that it may have been wing clipped but it never seemed to hinder it in flight.
The next day it's off to Rainham Marshes to tick a couple of Spoonbills that we saw after a small search. On the walk to the Serin mound, we tick Whitethroat, Sedge Warbler, Reed Warbler & a long-awaited Blackcap. I was hoping to see them in my garden as usual but not this year. We also saw our first Wheatear of the year on the hill by the tip.
A Ring Ouzel has stayed around in Hertfordshire, many reports of Ring Ouzel have been around but we have not been motivated to go looking for them until now. We wanted to get out birding so set off to find the bird. It was a bit of a climb uphill before we found the paddock just short of the farm entrance and a mist was covering most of the field. so it's a bit of a wait for it to clear, when it did the Ouzel was found. It never came too close but we enjoyed good long views of the bird. Off to Amwell as it is so close and we get lucky when we spot a lovely pair of Red-crested Pochard for another year tick.
Tuesday morning a report comes through that a Black-winged Stilt had arrived on Purfleet scrape at Rainham Marshes, so of course, we had to shoot over to tick it. My wife Jean wanted a walk so we all set off and arrived around 30 minutes later only to find that the Stilt had flown off west. So we decide to walk the reserve that was only one way round & had track & trace in operation. On the walk, Jimmy found a self-found Garganey and managed to get a few very grateful people onto it. We are now at the furthest part of the reserve from Purfleet scrape when we hear that the Black-winged Stilt had landed on the Purfleet scrape again, So a fast walk back that was not what we needed. But a tick is a tick and always so nice to see them. It's thanks to Howard that we saw it as we had walked past the area it had landed in and he guided us to where we could get a fair view of the Stilt.
The real bonus came when just sitting watching the chase on television, Brian phoned to say 3 Black-necked Grebes had just landed on my local Roding valley lake. It's only a 2-minute walk from my house and we don't get too much unusual over there. Although we did get a very confiding Red-necked |Grebe there a couple of years ago. Minutes later we are joined by Brian to watch the 3 Grebes in Summer plumage for a really nice late evening tick to round off a really nice day.
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| Garganey |
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| Easneye Ouzel |
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| Black-winged Stilt |
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