Red-breasted Mergansers at Amwell

This morning was the first cloudy morning for some time and an opportunity to leave the camera in the cupboard and do some indoor jobs. However at 11.00am I received an email from Joan Thompson saying that there had been a report of a pair of Red-breasted Mergansers at Amwell which was quickly followed by another email from Mike Ilett to say that, via Bill Last, the mergansers were still there. So the indoor jobs were quickly abandoned and I was on my way.

Arriving at the viewpoint I quickly located them by the island at the south end of the lake, Unfortunately, as I was walking down towards the Gladwin Hide they started swimming northwards up the lake and were soon far out in the middle. However, luckily after diving for 10 minutes out in the middle they once more started moving back to the island and eventually swam between the island and the hide which gave some close views.