Trip reports

Local walk in the Kings Mead area

Male wigeon swimming

Sunday, 5 October 2008

Wet!! Wet!! Wet!! It was a grey and increasingly wet morning as 10 people gathered in Ware Library car park for a walk on the Meads.

We walked along the towpath towards Ware lock, before going on to the Herts & Middx Wildlife Trust reserve. The pools at Chadwell Mead were flooded and this provided the main bird interest, with various wildfowl and gulls as well as a glimpse of kingfisher and more prolonged views of grey wagtail. We sheltered under the bypass and scanned the pools with telescopes, pointing out different plumages in ducks and gulls. We walked to the New River, where we saw large numbers of signal crayfish, on to New Gauge House, then back along the towpath to the car park. We had previously searched in vain for green woodpecker on the school field but finally found one there just at the end of the walk .

There was rather less bird activity than hoped because of the rain, but it's an interesting site to visit at any time of year.

Birds seen (39spp)

Great crested grebe, little grebe, cormorant, grey heron, mute swan, Canada goose, wigeon, teal, gadwall, mallard, shoveler, tufted duck, kestrel, pheasant, moorhen, coot, snipe, common gull, black-headed gull, woodpigeon, collared dove, kingfisher, grey wagtail, wren, dunnock, robin, blackbird, blue tit, great tit, long-tailed tit, magpie, jackdaw, rook, carrion crow, starling, house sparrow, chaffinch and greenfinch.

Plus Chicken - breed unknown!

Many thanks to Ted Bell for leading this walk