Seymour Birdies Diary

19th October 2026

An afternoon visit to the Draper Hide today to see what was on show. Recently the first bird you see as you peer out of the window is a very showy juvenile Cormorant sitting on its favourite perch right outside the window, an absolute poser. Well, that is a good start.

Then there were the other usual suspects including the resident Heron, Little Grebe and Stock Dove.

The Common Terns have all departed now so the only flight shots were of the handful of Black-headed Gulls present.

Autumn migration is also all but over, and today the only waders present were a distant Lapwing and two Green Sandpipers.

And then, for me at least at Rye Meads, three scarce birds. The first was a pair of Egyptian Geese that flew in, which are fairly common in the Lea Valley but possibly the first I have seen at Rye Meads.

The second was a Red Kite which as we all know are very common in Hertfordshire including the local area, but a bird I rarely see at Rye Meads. Over the past few years I have possibly seen more Marsh Harriers here than I have Red Kites.

And finally a Jay which is definitely the first I have seen from the Draper Hide.

So back to the Cormorant. The water in front of the hide is currently very shallow so when it dives after fish it creates a bow wave on top of the water and absolute chaos underneath, with fish charging around in all directions.

This was soon noticed by the Little Egret which went over to investigate...............

.......................and was soon joining in the feeding frenzy....................

........................with good results achieved by all!!!

I arrived in the hide at 2pm and it wasn't until 15 minutes before closing time that the adult male Kingfisher appeared and put on a show.

It sat quietly motionless for a while.........................

........................and then READY................STEADY...............

........................GO!!!!!

No success this time, but it provide an opportunity for some shots.

One of the interesting things about Kingfishers is that they have two stomachs. When they swallow a fish it passes down to the first stomach, the glandular stomach aka the proventriculus. Here digestive enzymes are used to break down the meat, and the bones and scales are left behind.

The bones and scales are then passed to the second stomach, the muscular stomach aka the gizzard. Here the powerful muscular walls crush the bones and scales into a compact, smooth and oval-shaped pellet. It takes 8-10 hours for a pellet to form. When the bird is ready to expel the pellet it will extend its neck, open its bill wide and cough up the peanut-sized bundle.

Here is a sequence I managed to capture today.

And away!!!

Well, what a brilliant three hours and also good to have a long catch-up with Alan Harris who I have known for 52 years going back to the 1970s at the Rye Meads Ringing Group. Alan of course is still there.

Happy Days!!!!!

17th October 2026

It is mid-October now which marks the transition from summer to winter at Amwell. All the summer visitors have returned to warmer climes and the winter visitors are just starting to arrive. The most famous winter visitor here is the Bittern and in the past when winters were a lot colder with frozen waterways, up to four birds could over-winter at Amwell and could frequently be seen particularly around the Bittern Pool. However, in recent years just one Bittern has over-wintered, arriving much earlier in July, this year the 31st July, but is much more elusive spending time in all four corners of the site.

Here is a photo I took on the 21st of September.

But probably most noticeable winter arrivals at the moment are the gulls. Twenty years ago gulls were only seen at Amwell during the winter months and the only sea birds to breed on site were the Common Terns. But in about 2005 Black-headed Gulls bred for the first time at Brent Reservoir, aka The Welsh Harp, and thereafter spread rapidly up the Lea Valley and took over the tern rafts to such an extent that very few Common Terns, if any, breed in the valley these days.

Today there were about 30 gulls present in front of the view-point including Black-headed, Common (not shown), Herring and Lesser Black-backed, and it is likely that more will fly in at dusk for the roost. Great Black-backed will normally arrive a little later in the year.

And the other true winter visitors on view today were some Snipe, with five birds present in front of the view-point and probably more in front of the White Hide.