18 MARCH 2026 – A WALK ALONG THE RIVER STORT

It was rather an ambitious plan - to walk along the Stort from my home in Bishop’s Stortford, down to Twyford Lock (taking in Rushy Mead Reserve), then down along the towpath to Thorley Wash Reserve, then continue to Spellbrook, then back along the highway and take the public footpath up to St. James’ Church and back home via Southern Country Park. I took a packed lunch and water rations, as I knew I’d be out most of the day if things worked out.

It was a beautiful, cloudless, warm and sunny morning, with temperatures set to rise to around 18 degrees C or more. My aim in terms of wildlife was to attempt to see Chiffchaff; Blackcap; Grey Wagtail along the Stort and add Skylark around the farmland at the rear of St. James’ Church. But my plans were scuppered when I reached Thorley Wash because the towpath from there down to Spellbrook was still extremely muddy and almost impassible in places, with the alternative route across the railway line on the northern periphery of Thorley Wash Reserve not available to me because I couldn’t climb the style (I didn’t want to risk putting undue weight on my knees, which had been a tad troublesome of late).

Things started so well, with a sighting of a Great Spotted Woodpecker and a singing male Chiffchaff at Southmill Lock, and two singing male Chiffs at Rushy Mead Reserve (though I failed to see any of them), and a sighting of a Green Woodpecker (previously only heard) there too. Further along the Stort at Twyford Lock, I was delighted to see a pair of Grey Wagtails (which usually breed here, but I believe failed to do so last year).

Along the towpath towards Thorley Wash, two Great Cormorants were perched high on a Larch, then further along, three Eurasian Buzzards and a Red Kite, and a single Stock Dove. There were at least six singing male Chiffchaffs along that part of the towpath, although I only managed to see just two of them;  but disappointingly, there was no sign or song of a Blackcap.  I had a quick look on the Reserve, but no sightings of any Water Voles at the usual place. I’d lost count of the numbers of Brimstone Butterflies (of both sexes) I’d seen along the towpath; with several, Peacock Butterflies, and many bumblebees, and a bee-fly too; but little else of note.

Due to time constraints, I decided it probably wasn’t worth taking the circular walk around the northern sector. So I turned back with the intention of walking down along the towpath to Spellbrook, which was when I discovered that the route was still extremely muddy - a couple of walkers I met stated it was almost impassible in places - and therefore really quite dangerous for me to attempt, given that I’m still using a Nordic pole as support whilst waiting for hip replacement surgery. It was just after midday at that stage, so as I wasn’t getting to St. James’ Church and possible Skylarks by either of my intended routes, I decided to call it a day and return home (I hadn’t even thought about eating my lunch, which I did when I got back to Twyford Lock!).

I hadn’t gone far when I noticed a pair of Mute Swans on the river, and they appeared to be behaving like they were about to begin the mating ritual, as they were rubbing heads together in an intimate manner. I’d seen this sort of behaviour before, so I knew what to expect, so I refrained from proceeding further for fear of disturbing them. I even asked a walker to hold back awhile. I  attempted to demonstrate to him (with hand gestures) how the birds would rise up out of the water and link necks in a sort of heart-shape, before the pen (the female) drops to the water level, with the cob (the male) on her back, then - with the female submerged - the male mates and takes her by the neck as if attempting to drown her. But suddenly as predicted, the birds were in full mating ritual, and I very nearly missed photographing any of it, managing only the one shot. But it was an amazing spectacle, balletic and intimate, and even quite moving too. It was the first time I’d seen this behaviour with Swans at Thorley Wash, so I felt quite privileged.

On the way back I saw a single Rose-ringed Parakeet, which now seem to be an annual occurrence at Thorley Wash.

There were lots of wildflowers along the towpath, such as Greater Celandine, Dog Violets, early Cowslips, and even a few flowering Bluebells. So, all in all an interesting walk - with the mating of Mute Swans being the undoubted highlight. 

SPRING ALONG THE STORT

THE 'FORTRESS' - A FALLEN BEECH, COVERED IN MOSS

EURASIAN BUZZARD

EURASIAN BUZZARD - HONEY BUZZARD LOOK-ALIKE?

RED KITE

MOORHEN - TWYFORD LOCK

MOORHEN - THORLEY WASH

GREY WAGTAIL - TWYFORD LOCK

MUTE SWANS IN MATING RITUAL - THORLEY WASH

MUTE SWAN - POST MATING PREEN-UP

DOG VIOLETS - RUSHY MEAD

GREATER CELANDINE - NEAR TWYFORD LOCK

COWSLIP -  NEAR THORLEY WASH

FROG FEST – FEB/MARCH 2026

In my wildlife pond in March 2025, I recorded at least 60 individual frogs (most of them ‘paired up’) in an ‘orgy’ of activity the likes of which I’d never observed previously. The noise from the male frogs was quite loud at times, even in the daytime, which was also something I’d never experienced before. There  was a huge volume of frog spawn, but literally all of it disappeared virtually overnight on the 28^th March, and I’ve never been able to establish a viable explanation. Unusually, several frogs remained resident in the pond throughout the summer months, with the last three still in situ when it was completely rebuilt and relined early in November 2025.

Whilst 2026 hasn’t quite reached those heights, the first frogs appeared at least a month earlier than the previous year, culminating in a total of around 21 individuals, and a mass of spawn, even exceeding the exceptional volume of 2025, although hopefully this time, the spawn will hatch into froglets.

A MASS OF FROG SPAWN

FROGS 'HIDING' AMONGST THE NEW STONES

SEXTET

AMONGST THE SPAWN

26 FEBRUARY 2026 – WAXHAM, NORFOLK

John’s Landrover Discovery was away at the dealers awaiting spare parts, so it was a Volvo SUV courtesy car that was providing the transport on this trip, though Mike was unable to join us on this occasion.

We’d decided that a trip to the Norfolk Brecks would be the most suitable venue, but it wasn’t until we were about an hour or so into the journey that John brought up the prospect of revising our course in favour of trying for a Glaucous Gull and an Iceland Gull, which had been seen at Waxham on the east Norfolk coast, the previous day. It was some distance away from the Brecks, but since neither of us hadn’t seen either species for quite some time (19 years for the Glaucous Gull and 21 years for the Iceland in my case) it wasn’t really such a hard decision to make, although of course, neither gull was guaranteed.

Finding an actual road to Waxham beach was quite an achievement, but eventually we took a narrow road near Waxham Barn, which led to a sandy lane where several cars were parked, and where a couple had just returned from taking their terrier for a walk along the beach, and provided us with the relevant info of how to get where we wanted to go. A sandy track through some trees, eventually led to the beach and a substantial sea wall, but there was no sign of any birdwatchers, so we just made our way right along the sea wall, following the coastline on a long line of enormous rock groynes, where John picked up what appeared to be birdwatchers in the far, far distance, where gulls could be seen whirling around the beach. It looked promising, so we continued below the sea wall, but it took an absolute age to reach the birdwatchers - indeed it wouldn’t have surprised me to learn that we’d walked a couple of miles; it certainly felt like it.

There weren’t many birds around, mostly Black-headed; Herring; Lesser and Great Black-backed gulls; with a lone Great Crested Grebe out on the sea; but arguably more interesting were the huge herds of Grey Seals - several hundred strong at least, virtually the entire length of the beach, lined up above the tide line amongst the groynes - which we were certainly not expecting.

The seals comprised both bulls (some of which were huge beasts) and cows, although the smaller ones could well have been pups; but the varying colours of their mottled coats in all hues of black, brown, grey, ginger, and off-white was surprising. And something else came to the fore too……………the stench from the seals was simply acrid in the extreme, though luckily the breeze took the effect away to some extent. Most of the seals happily accepted close encounters with us humans, but some were not so, and slowly galumphed away to the safety of the sea as we passed.

By the time I reached John - who was a considerable distance in front of me most of the time (as I was struggling with an ailing hip and my Nordic stick as support) he gave me the news that neither Gull had been seen (the other birdwatchers had already been at the site most of the morning with nothing positive to report). We waited around for a while before we turned back, but at least we’d learned that one of our intended venues - Lynford Arboretum in the Brecks - was apparently extremely quiet bird wise, so that made us feel a tad happier at choosing to come to Waxham instead; but not by much!

In the meantime, whilst scoping the sea for birdlife, John found a flotilla of twenty or so Common Scoters, though they were very distant and were continually disappearing under the swell, though hardly compensation for missing our gulls I admit.

On the way back - the prospect of another torrid two-mile walk back along the sea wall wasn’t in the least inspiring - I was looking out to sea, when I heard a shout from John, and turned around to see him pointing desperately to the skies, so I knew in my heart that he’d seen the Glaucous Gull, but of course, by the time I reached him, the bird had disappeared! John tried to re-locate the gull, taking a steep flight of steps to the top of the sea wall, to scan the surrounding fields, with nothing positive to report other than seeing five Red Kites. But he remained somehow convinced that the gull would likely return to the original site on the beach, and was eventually proved correct, when by chance he scoped the bird perched on a signpost off in the distance. Luckily for me it stayed in situ long enough for me to get a good enough view through John’s scope, before suddenly it wasn’t there anymore. Elation was the order of the day for a while - though more so for John who had the best view initially as it flew in from the sea over his head!

We decided in vain to try looking for Common Cranes on fields around Hickling Broad, although we did see a couple of Cattle Egrets and a lone Little Egret in fields aligning the winding road.  We also tried for Purple Sandpipers on the rocks at Sea Palling further north along the coast, without success due to the high tide.

It was getting late in the afternoon by then, so we decided to head for home, taking in a welcome cappuccino on the way. It hadn’t been an especially remarkable days birding, but there was no argument that getting at least one of our target species was some achievement given the circumstances. But I confess, the Grey Seals made the day for me, despite their odour!

  

8 JANUARY 2026 – ABBERTON RESERVOIR

This was our first birding trip of the new year and right from the start it seemed from forecasts that we were going to be fighting the weather - the first part of the day being still extremely cold, with light winds, drizzle and fog, followed by heavy rain and strong southwesterlies from about 14.00 hrs. possibly turning wintery by late afternoon - early evening; all courtesy of storm Goretti. So, we set off from mine shortly after 08.00 hrs expecting that we’d likely back home by mid-afternoon.

We had no problems on the road with traffic, but a detour around Coggeshall, meant that we were forced to approach Abberton Reservoir from the Layer de la Haye concourse as opposed to the Layer Breton concourse which was our intended route.

Straight away it was absolutely apparent that the reservoir south of the road here was almost entirely frozen, with hardly a bird on it, except for a couple of Great Egrets and a Carrion Crow, whereas the northern sector was less frozen with isolated groups of Goosander; Wigeon; Tufted Duck; Teal, with the odd Great Crested Grebe; Goldeneye and Pochard. There were a couple of Redshank; Black-tailed Godwits, and Oystercatchers  on the eastern bank, but not much else of note. John picked at least three Red Crested Pochard in his scope and a couple of distant Bewick’s Swans. But we missed out on Black-necked and Slavonian Grebes which had been observed in recent days.

On the way round to the Layer Breton concourse, we looked in at one of the hides at Billet’s Farm, but views of birds were restricted by fog that seemed to be becoming denser by the minute. Regrettably, we just missed a Long-tailed Duck, but there wasn’t a great deal on show here, although once again John came to the rescue with a singleton Mediterranean Gull and a drake Pintail. A female ring-necked Pheasant; a flock of about ten Dunlin, and a flyover Golden Plover helped boost our year lists too.

At Layer Breton virtually the first bird we latched onto was a stunning drake Smew, a species I hadn’t seen here for several years, and despite swimming and diving over a wide area, it kept a reasonable distance from the birders watching it.  There was a lot of activity here as it wasn’t as extensively frozen as from the southern section at Layer de la Haye, but there were many Mute Swans and Egyptian Geese interspersed with Grey Lags; Tufted Duck; Wigeon and other duck species, including a Red-head Smew (a female) which I found near to the left bank, initially ‘hiding’ beneath a fallen tree and which seemed very reluctant to come out at times. A Eurasian Buzzard was seen flying over the frozen waters and was something of a surprise. The southern part of the lake was almost entirely frozen with hardly a bird on it save for Black-headed and Herring Gulls, and I think at least one Mew (Common) Gull. But although there were a few Great Egrets, we saw absolutely no Little Egrets or Cattle Egrets (all of which had bred here); obviously the conditions were too harsh for them here, and they’d moved out to outlying fields; streams and rivulets.

After speaking to a fellow birdwatcher, John discovered that there was a ‘permissible footpath’ nearby where Tundra Bean Geese and White-fronted Geese had been observed of late, so we made a beeline for that, almost immediately connecting with a large flock of 80 or so Egyptian Geese on open fields, and behind them the three Bean Geese. Quite a bit further along, we connected with a large flock of wary Grey Lags with some Canada Geese, interspersed with the Whitefronts - where John scoped at least 14, with a good 100 or so Canada Geese further away. A pair of Stock Doves flew over, and good numbers of Redwings were seen flying out of Hawthorn bushes that lined the path.

We returned to Layer de la Haye concourse - where Mike and I spotted what we initially thought was a second drake Smew swimming around ice-free areas of water - although we soon discovered that the drake at Layer Breton was seen to fly north, so was almost certainly the same bird.

Later, we visited the Visitor Centre and the bird hides there, without seeing much more of interest due to the lack of birds on frozen waters, although two more Bewick’s Swans; a Sparrowhawk; an obliging Green Woodpecker on a wooden fence, and a few small passerines such as Titmice and Starlings were seen. By this time the whole reserve was shrouded in a truly dense fog, which virtually obliterated views of the birds and everything else.

After a welcome Cappuccino we left for home arriving at mine at 15.00 hrs in extremely dense fog, fortunately without experiencing the forecast heavy rain and high winds ………….which came after darkness fell.

A ritual that most of us ‘birders’ partake in is keeping a list of birds seen in any one year. Some are arguably a tad over-zealous in this regard, but I’d like to think that we three don’t take it that seriously. That said getting our lists off to a good start for the year is something probably most birders who keep lists adhere to well, almost religiously - and we are no different.

We achieved up to 32 ‘year ticks’ between us which we all felt was quite an exceptional tally, given the adverse weather conditions - indeed, none of us could recall seeing so much frozen water at Abberton previously, and I’m certain that helped us to some degree.

DRAKE GOLDENEYE

GOOSANDER (F)

GOOSANDER (M)

GREEN WOODPECKER

KERRY (?) SHEEP (near the 'permissible footpath)

SMEW (DRAKE)

SMEW (DRAKE)

 SMEW (DRAKE)

SMEW (FEMALE or REDHEAD)

EURASIAN WIGEON

9 SEPTEMBER 2025 – TEDNAMBURY and THORLEY WASH

I’d heard about Whinchats being seen locally, so having seen the species previously at Thorley Wash (though not since September 2017) I thought I’d visit Thorley Wash in case one had found its way there. But as soon as I got off the bus at Spellbrook, instead of heading north along the Stort towpath, I headed south towards Tednambury, as I remembered I’d seen Whinchats there too in the past.

It started well with sightings of a Great Spotted Woodpecker and a Green Woodpecker (both of which had been hard to see at Thorley Wash this year), but after a relatively short distance along the towpath I heard a ‘cronking’ sound and when I turned around, I saw a large ‘crow-like’ bird alight atop of a radio mast a couple of hundred metres or so away. The knew the ‘cronking’ was that of a Raven but the bird I was seeing was too far away to be sure, although binocular views when the bird bowed to show a large crop, I was certain in my mind that it was indeed a Raven; I mean its whole demeanour screamed Raven, and anyway Crows don't 'cronk'!!

I took several shots through the camera using my 100-400 mm telephoto - and in the screen when enlarged I could see the bird well enough to know that my conclusion was correct. But I couldn’t leave it there - I needed to get closer, to try and get better photographs if possible. So, I retraced my steps along the towpath, to get into the field where the radio mast was situated. I might have been trespassing (something I wouldn’t normally do) but access to the field was from an unrestricted pathway, so maybe I was okay; but up the hill I was luckily undercover of trees and bushes, and when I reached the mast I had no option but to leave the cover in order to view the top of the mast - but of course as soon as I did so, the bird saw me and took immediately to flight - joined by another equally large bird - both ‘cronking’ continuously. I had to act quickly, so trained the camera on the two birds, and tracked them as they flew, with just four or five shots taken before they were too far away to matter. They both flew around and away to land in a distant oak, where another - equally large - bird was perched, together with a kestrel which was diminutive in comparison. I looked at my shots, and could see the birds’ massive bills, and in one photo the wedge-shaped tail; so, I was happy I’d identified the Ravens correctly - indeed, I was over the moon at the superb views I’d had. Later, I enjoyed another sighting as a Raven flew high over me - ‘cronking’ all the time - and when I could see the wedge-shaped tail more clearly, although, unbelievably, I sort of forgot to use the camera!!

Along the towpath, I found a juvenile Little Grebe hiding amongst the reeds along the Stort. This was quite a surprising record, as normally Little Grebes are seen here (and at Thorley Wash) in the winter months - occasionally in good numbers, my best being fifteen individuals. But could this one be a locally bred bird?? I also saw a distant Red Kite and a Cormorant fishing in the river.

As for chances of seeing a Whinchat, well they were non-existent, as the marsh was virtually completely devoid of any birdlife - no Whitethroats; no Reed Buntings - absolutely nothing. But it would have been difficult to see any bird anyway as the marsh was completely covered in Himalayan Balsam, which was clearly rampant here; a scene completely different to the last time I visited the site some months ago. I turned back at that stage, and made my way back along the towpath, with no further views of Ravens, although I did get some quite lovely shots of the Little Grebe, before two canal boats disturbed the waters.

As I approached Thorley Wash Reserve along the towpath alongside Walbury Estate, I found a couple of pairs of Western Spreadwing damselflies (previously known as Willow Emerald damselflies) and the briefest glimpse of a Kingfisher flying high over some Willow trees.

A walk around the northern section of Thorley Wash Reserve produced little in the way of birdlife, and the number of Western Spreadwing damselflies was disappointingly small - indeed, I don’t think I’d ever witnessed the reserve so quiet. This quietude was exemplified by the sighting of a small herd of Water Buffalo that were lying down, sheltering from the warm sunshine beneath Willow trees. It had been warm, with unrelenting sunshine throughout the day, but cloud was increasing from the south, and by mid-afternoon showers were threatening. I did see several Hornets hovering over an Ivy bush, but it was almost impossible to get decent photographs because they were all entirely unpredictable and constantly on the move.

A few more Western Spreadwings were seen on my way north along the towpath - although they were incredibly difficult to photograph without risking falling into the river - and the Kingfisher was seen again, this time skimming the surface as it flew rapidly upstream. A few dragonflies were seen - a single Brown Hawker; several Common Darters (most in tandem with a mate egg laying); a couple of Common Blue Damselflies, and rather a lot of Migrant Hawkers - a couple of which I found ‘perched’ on stems of reeds and were photographable. Further along, I found a species of Cricket which I believe was a Brown Bush Cricket - an entirely new species for me.

I guess it hadn’t been exceptional bird-wise, but even as I write this, I still cannot believe I’d seen Ravens at such close quarters; and of course, the sighting of a Kingfisher was memorable because it was the first siting of the species anywhere this year.

RAVEN (the first view - vastly enlarged)

RAVENS

RAVENS

LITTLE GREBE

LITTLE GREBE

LITTLE GREBE

COMMON DARTER

MIGRANT HAWKER

WESTERN SPREADWING

WESTERN SPREADWINGS IN TANDEM

WATER BUFFALO

MUTE SWAN

HORNET

BROWN BUSH CRICKET