Amwell NR - 1.2.16

Even without holding much hope that yesterdays Franklin's Gull would reappear myself and a few of Herts keenest listers ventured over to Amwell just in case! Standing at the viewpoint I quickly heard the familiar pinging of a Bearded Tit. After a couple of minutes the female bird that had been present for a while flew from one small clump of reeds to the next. Only my 3rd in Herts! Other birds to keep us interested were a flyby Kingfisher and fly over Peregrine. The next good bird was a 2nd winter Yellow-Legged Gull which again was only my 3rd in Herts. This was followed by a smart 1st Winter Caspian Gull but no sooner as I went to get a photo it flew off and landed too far away to be worth bothering with! This was only my 2nd for Herts! As dark fell and all hopes of the Franklin's being found had diminished I picked out a pair of Mandarin coming off the island just as the locals said they would. These were soon followed by a further 5 pairs! So 12 Mandarin together represented my biggest ever flock in Herts beating 11 seen a few years ago at Wilstone! On the walk back to the car I joined a few people looking out into the gloom and quite quickly a Woodcock flew past us. All in all a good couple of hours even if I did suffer my first Herts dip in a couple of years.