Friday 12 August 2011

WOOD SANDPIPERS at last







WEDNESDAY 10 AUGUST

Another dry day, relatively warm, mainly overcast and with light variable winds..

Having missed all of the Wood Sandpipers that have so far occurred in the county this year, I was mightily pleased to hear that Barry Reed had located two at Amwell and that Bill Last had confirmed that both were still present early afternoon.

AMWELL NATURE RESERVE (HERTFORDSHIRE)

I eventually managed to get to Amwell early evening and with local guidance from Barry was quickly able to achieve my goal....

The two juvenile WOOD SANDPIPERS that Barry had located early morning were still present at 1800 hours, feeding and resting together on the western shore of the main lake just 50 yards north of the hide. They were fairly vocal and were seen in flight on one occasion, briefly attempting to land on a bloom of algae. Both were very freshly plumaged but with drab, greyish-green leg colour. Alan Reynolds did manage to get these shots of the birds, published above.

Barry and I also saw a flock of 7 COMMON CROSSBILLS in flight, up to 6 of these birds being seen quite regularly in the area since Sunday.

Two juvenile COMMON SHELDUCK were new in and other migrants included 2 COMMON SANDPIPERS and 8 COMMON SWIFTS.

Five Little Egrets were on site, a Sparrowhawk, two argenteus Herring Gulls flew over and a COMMON SHREW ran across the footpath close to the hide

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