The Magic of the St Albans Watercress Beds

25th February 2022

The St Albans Watercress Beds, or to give them their official title the Riverside Road Watercress Beds, are owned by St Albans District Council and managed by the Watercress Wildlife Association , a registered charity. The site is under 2 hectares in area, but despite its small size attracts a good variety of birds including Kingfishers and Water Rails and, due to a combination of bird feeders and Alders, good numbers of winter finches such as Siskins and Lesser Redpolls.

The habitat is diverse with ponds, marshy areas and woodland and the first sign of spring was this Wood Anemone, one of my favourite flowers.

I also spotted this Jay feeding just 5 yards away but it was the other side of a hedge and when trying to photograph it through a small gap in the hedge, I could only get its head in the photograph.

So now on to the finches. Both Chaffinches and Bullfinches were present, but both totally outnumbered by the winter finches.

Here the male Bullfinch is in typical pose behind a twig. I must remember my secateurs next time.

It was lovely to hear the incessant noise of Siskins high in the Alders. It was possible to get a few shots when they occasionally came to some of the lower outside branches, but the best opportunities were when they alighted on bushes before going to the feeders. The first four photos are males which are brighter and have a black cap.

Females are paler without a black cap but are rather cute.

Back to some males.

Lesser Redpolls are getting a bit more scarce these days, but not apparently at the watercress beds where they were queuing up for the feeders. Also nice to see so many males with their crimson breast.

The females lack the crimson on the breast but like female Siskins are still very cute.

This one had a bit of attitude and kept looking down at me.

But as much as I love the opportunity to photograph Bullfinches, Siskins and Redpolls the unexpected stars today were the male Bramblings, assuming there was more than one. I don't remember seeing them here before but these were absolute posers.

Well what a fantastic day at this fabulous, small and well-managed reserve, and well done to all the Trustees for all their efforts.