Early Birding on the River

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A beautiful calm misty morning greeted us as we made our way to St Ives for our early morning wildlife watching boat trip on the River Great Ouse.  We met up with the remainder of the 12 passengers and boarded the electric powered boat with the aim of spotting as many different birds by sight or sound as we could.  I was given the job of official sightings recorder! 

As we silently pulled away from the pontoon I soon had 20 birds on my list, with everyone calling out what they could see.  The weather was perfect with the mist rising from the river.  Passing by the reed beds we clearly picked out both the reed and sedge warbler, the latter easily identified with its eye stripe.   Someone spotted oyster catchers and a sparrow hawk flying over head and a kingfisher flew past though the traditional blue colours were not visible.  Some people did spot one later on.   The tally soon approached 40. Three types of geese were seen including a nest of large eggs belonging to a greylag. 

After a while we reached Hemingford Lock so the Captain  worked that and we glided out towards Houghton.  Turning round  we started the return trip  and keeping our eyes peeled we saw woodpeckers, a jay and reed bunting.  

Returning through the lock the water dropped quite fast initially but after a while remained static although higher than  where we were heading.  Upon investigation it was discovered that water was entering the lock from the other end and the gate was found to be still open slightly.  This was soon rectified and  we were on our way.

It wasn't long before we reached the famous arched bridge again and were moored in St Ives


.  A lovely morning on the river giving a total of 50 birds.

Setting out in the mist

 Hemingford Lock



 Egyptian Goose
 
Horse grazing on the bank
 

 Mallards

 Greylag goose nest

 Canada Goose

 Swan on nest


almost back

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