A TRIP TO AMWELL

Well this was a mostly wasted journey.

I ended up late due to finding out some stuff ... with something I have ... or my family have going on and ended up messaging a lot and on the phone so got out two hours later than planned.

Not that it made much difference as I was aiming to get to a dragonfly sanctuary and ... it turned out to be close until the end of the month! Damn it!!

Loads of Orange Tip Butterflies ... pictures of none!

Head some out of the ordinary bird calls, had hoped to get shots and videos of Reed Buntings and not sure if it was their calls or not.

Anyway I did get a few shots and videos while I was there ...

Shoveler Duck

Great Crested Grebe Hunting

Great Crested Grebe Diving

Great Crested Grebe catching ... RESULT! Not for the fish, mind you!

Great Crested Grebe in Spring Sunshine

Gradually going green..

 A Dunnock, there were three or four of them ...

Until I saw this picture on my PC monitor I had no idea there was a Little Egret at the lake! Flying past the Cormorants ...

A few videos ...

Cormorants

Dunnocks

Shoveler Up Ending

Poachard

Oystercatcher ..

Gulls bathing ...

Great Crested Grebe

Gadwalls ..

THE GREAT CRESTED GREBE

No dancing or zooming through the water like a turbocharged torpedo but as well as the photos below I do have a video of another individual!

The Great Crested Grebe and as majestic as they look you shoould really see their courtship dance and even more rarely when they are under water chasing fish. They move at speeds that seem quite impossible and improbable! A brother and myself saw this taking place and a small roach leaping out the water. While standing on a bridge by the Bittern Hide at Fishers Green in Lea Valley Park we BOTH thought this fast moving missile was a PIKE?!

Even so we were amazed at the speed it was travelling but when it came up out the water with the Roach in its beak we looked at each other with awe.

All the years we have spent around animals both British and exotic and something we think of as an everyday species of British Bird wows us with something quite stunning indeed!

VIDEO:

BIRDS: GREAT CRESTED GREBE AND DABCHICK ... or just CHICK?!

Was not sure about the small bird, there were a group of several on their own. Behaved very shy and submerged and re-appeared many feet away and very Dabchick like?! But then from round a bend the adult Great crested Grebe appeared and I wondered of there were chicks, despite the time of year!!