Little Stint, 2 of the Ring-Necked Duck, Blackwit and the Grey Phalablob!!
Every now and then the birding in Herts moves up a gear with 1-2 good county birds turning up. Today was one of those days so I headed up the A41 towards Wilstone Reservoir. I grabbed a parking space and walked up the steps and towards the hide. Just before I got to the hide I bumped into Bill Pegram who informed me that the birds id come to see were still present. With that good news I got to the hide and took a seat and within a minute I was the first of them. Out on the muddy spit to the left of the hide was a juvenile
Little Stint. It busily fed along the waters edge occasionally vanishing behind other birds. This was my 5th in Herts and my 3rd on Wilstone. Quite quickly I managed to find the other good bird on the water just off the Drayton Bank. There fast asleep was the female
Ring-Necked Duck. After about 10 minutes it woke up and I managed to grab the two photos above. This bird was my 6th in UK and my 2nd in Herts with both being seen on Wilstone. Other birds that were noted were 3
Black-Tailed Godwit and at least 70+
Golden Plover though there were probably more but I didn't count them! I then walked around to the jetty to try and see the
Water Pipit but it had disappeared.
Once home I had a spot of lunch and headed over to Hilfield Reservoir where right over the far side was a 1st winter
Grey Phalarope bobbing around on the choppy water. I tried my best to get a photo of it but as you can see above its more like an over exposed white blob! This was amazingly my 5th in Herts and my 2nd at Hilfield.
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