Weather: Clear blue skies. Very cold.
Bird Total: 43
Plus: Grey Squirrel; Rabbit.
It was a relatively quiet day at Amwell today. For once, the weather forecast was spot-on - clear skies for most of the day. It was actually quite warm in the sun but quite cold sitting in the Hides. I was having difficulty believing it was December and not September. Even more that Christmas was only a fortnight away.

There were the usual birds out on the lake, including 60+ Lapwing, but numbers across the board were noticeably down. We headed down to the Gladwin Hide, where we spotted 5 drake Goldeneyes, which were continually diving, but strangely no females. A redhead Smew had been seen here recently, but remained hidden, if it was still around at all.

Walking over the bridge I spotted a few birds feeding on the catkins. As we got closer we were delighted to find them to be Siskins.
We took a quick look out over the Bittern Pool a couple of times today, but very few birds were about. The Hides had been repaired after the recent vandalism and so we entered the James Hide. Where we found Brian and Katy Kingfisher, who were both patiently waiting for the Kingfisher to appear.

Barry and I then took a walk down to the Dragonfly Trail entrance, where we found Goldfinches and Chaffinches on the feeders. There was also a lovely male Great Spotted Woodpecker, scaring everything off. Several Pheasants were cleaning up the spillage.
From here we headed to the White Hide, where we broke for lunch. Hot coffee! Unfortunately, the few birds that were on show stayed away. So we then found ourselves back in the James Hide, this time on our own.
With nothing else extra to be seen we walked back up to the Watchpoint, where one of the Lapwing had flown in, quite close. Barry was keen to head off not long after and I again found myself just missing the train home, having to again sit in a draughty train station for 30 minutes or so.
A quiet day but it was still good to be out and about. The weather turns poor for the next few days but hopefully will improve.
'Tomorrow (noun) - a mystical land where 99% of all human productivity, motivation and achievement is stored.'