Visit to Amwell. Evening 21.04.10

This evening I popped over to Amwell Nature Reserve, a local habitat some 8 miles from home. Excellent facilities and great birding. Always good to be there at this time of the year to see and hear new arrivals. The light was superb and I left my camera at home! Immediately, was into a whole pile of sand martins, with a couple of house martins and 2 swallows mixed in. In all, I reckon 275 sand martins. Later a huge flock came through, including 5 swifts.
Reed warblers, blackcaps, chiffchaffs and a solitary garden warbler sang and in the distance a cuckoo could be heard. Redshanks piped as ringed plovers flew over the water along with the usual resident birds such as cormorants, grey heron, tufted duck, pochards and lapwings.
A few gulls, 5 lesser black backed and 1 herring, came into wash and roost as more sand martins piled over. A little ringed plover remained stationary on the island as a snipe appeared in front of the view point. From here, I also recorded a single white wagtail, my first for the year. A super 1.5 hours in warm conditions. A full list of the birds:
great crested grebe, cormorant, grey heron, mute swan, greylag goose, canada goose, shelduck, mallard, gadwall, shoveler, teal, pochard, tufted duck, sparrow hawk, pheasant, moorhen, coot, little ringed plover, ringed plover, lapwing, redshank, snipe, herring gull, lesser black backed gull, wood pigeon, stock dove, collared dove, cuckoo, swift, green woodpecker, sand martin, swallow, house martin, white wagtail, wren, dunnock, robin, song thrush, blackbird, garden warbler, blackcap, reed warbler, chiffchaff, great tit, blue tit, long tailed tit, magpie, jackdaw, rook, carrion crow, starling, chaffinch, greenfinch and reed bunting.
Just goes to show what an excellent place it is for a good variety of birds. Over 50 species in less than 2 hours. The birds in bold signify first sightings for 2010. Next time: camera!
More details can be viewed at http://www.hertswildlifetrust.org.uk/NatureReserves/Flagship/amwell