Local Wildlife Sightings November 2022

 November continued in the same vein as October - extremely wet, but very mild with temperatures almost reaching 20C in the first half of the month. Ground, which had been rock hard during the hot, dry summer, became a mass of mud as overall rainfall levels for the year returned to normal by the end of the month. Over 120mm of rain fell, making this the wettest November since (my garden) records began, over 30 years ago. Opportunities for me to get out were limited for a variety of reasons, but I did manage a walk around the villages on the 4th. On a warm, sunny day I saw quite a few of our over-wintering butterflies as well as an unusually late speckled wood. The bird watching highlight was a pair of gadwalls on Phillup's Lake. Unfortunately, the birds flew off before I had the chance to photograph them. Other highlights included flocks of 17 fieldfares, 15 corn buntings and around 200 golden plovers (all seen from the Icknield Way). Grey partridges were seen and/or heard on a few occasions, with 14 recorded along the Icknield Way on the 1st.

Linnet at Royston, 4 November

A Hertfordshire rarity, in the form of a juvenile Sabine's gull, was discovered at Amwell as it came into the black-headed gull roost on the evening of the 16th. The bird departed very early on the following morning. There was a repeat performance on the 17/18th, so I (and many others) visited the Amwell watchpoint on the afternoon of the 18th, hoping for another repeat performance. However, on this evening (it gets dark between 4.00pm and 4.30pm) the bird didn't turn up - much to our disappointment. Frustratingly, it did come in, to roost on the 19th and 20th, when I was unable to visit Amwell, so I missed out on seeing it on the only day in five that it didn't roost! However, I did see the 'resident' juvenile whooper swan when I visited Rye Meads on the 24th.