Five members assembled on a beautiful, sunny morning at the Aquasports car park. We headed first to a meadow behind Mercers Farm in search of yellowhammers but the large flock seen earlier in the year was not in the vicinity with only one glimpsed. Instead we had to content ourselves with a perched skylark and a kestrel. More birds were present on Spynes Mere including lapwings, little grebes, gadwall and one wigeon. Sadly the hedgerows had greatly thickened in the past year and views were possible from just a single point though we could see part of the magnificent sand martin bank newly built at the far end. We tried our hand at Mercers West but the view was more restricted than ever and we could see little more than cormorants and hundreds of loafing gulls. Back at Mercers Lake there was little bird activity with views of a few great crested grebes and mute swans plus a flyover by five Egyptian geese. We then drove to the Holmethorpe Lagoons but again the height of untended hedges limited our view and new sightings were limited to a pied wagtail and a lesser black-backed gull.
Local Group
