As I was having Wendy's car cleaned at Spellbrook, I took the opportunity to spend a few hours again wandering along the River Stort to Thorley Wash Herts and Middlesex Reserve.
All very quiet on the bird front, with 2 kingfishers seen flying upriver, a skein of 18 mute swans over as well as a common buzzard and a cormorant. Very few birds actually within the boundaries of the reserve, long tailed, blue and great tits, wrens and robins and a relatively large count of 21 mallards flushed from the sedge.
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| great tit |
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| strange shot of long tailed tit |
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| wren |
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| dunnock |
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| flyby drake mallard |
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| teasels |
On the River Stort Navigation, 3 little grebe, more mallard and several moorhens. A nuthatch called from Wallbury and 2 great spotted woodpeckers flew over as a green woodpecker was observed in a tree.
I spent time scanning the large oaks where lesser spotted woodpecker used to overwinter between 2005 - 2007 but no sign, just good numbers of long tailed tits.
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| moorhen |
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| little grebe |
I also spent time scanning the whole area from the red bridge but no stonechat, reed bunting or snipe were noted. Need a cold snap to bring these, and perhaps a water rail into the area.
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| River Stort Navigation, looking north |
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| reflections |
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