Holywell and Hartford

I went out this afternoon to Holywell Pond with Steve H. We went to the members hide and met some other birders who had three Garganey in the reeds to the left.
They were in the patch of reeds on the corner between the two hides and were quite difficult to see.
After scanning through the reeds I could see a Drake Garganey’s head amongst a few Teal, a Drake Shoveler was near it with a few Moorhen.
The Moorhen were moving around the reeds a lot and flushed the other Drake Garganey into the flattened area of reeds with the female.
They didn’t move much, one of the Drakes swan onto the open water briefly with the Teal before moving back into the reeds.
Tufted Duck, Pochard, and 1 Great Crested Grebe were also on the water, 2 Canada Geese and 2 Greylag Geese were in front of the hide.
No sign of the Bramblings at the feeding station only Greenfinch and Pheasant.
As we were watching some Sand Martins which were flying over the pond a first winter Med Gull landed on the water and began washing itself, it stayed for a while before flying off.
There were plenty of Mallards on the pond and two males attempted to mate in front of the hide, I’ll go no further.
On the way back we stopped at West Hartford where the wind was getting very strong, on the pool there were the usual gulls with a few LBB mixed in.
The Shellduck and Teal were also there with lapwing, Oystercatcher and a Redshank – Patch Tick.

79 – Redshank