We met up at the layby just outside Peterston-super-Ely at 9 a.m. Davis Rich immediately gripped everyone off as he had seen a Kingfisher by the nearby footbridge! As we were about to set off, two Sparrowhawks did a nice fly-by, and a Kestrel and House Martin were noted. Access to the site was by walking down the road, across the small road bridge and then following the Lanlay Meadows National Trust signpost. Passing through some trees one emerges into a series of fields with the meandering R. Ely to the right. It was pretty obvious straight away that small birds were going to be hard to find – there was very little vocalisation. David Rich was on a roll as he spotted a Green Woodpecker sitting in the open in a distant dead tree. There were 3 corvids in the same tree and I noted the tapered bill of the upper one, which all agreed, was a Rook. Walking slowly along, a Chiffchaff was heard calling and small numbers of Goldfinch twittered in flight overhead. Other fly-overs comprised a couple of Lesser Black-backed and Herring Gulls, and then a calling Buzzard. The walk crosses several small bridges over ditches that lead into the river, and the whole site is pretty muddy in winter and requires wellies. A nice distraction as we approached one bridge, was an impressive Dark Bush-cricket that Alan had spotted in the grass, and I managed to get a nice photo of that [which is with the small selection I included with the FB and website posts]. Eventually John & Alan advised us that we were near the ‘hot’ spots for seeing the Green Sandpipers. John went off to do some jungle bashing though the dense growths of the pesky Himalayan Balsam, and we were to keep our eyes peeled along the preferred stretch of river.
After about 10 minutes a group of 6 suddenly exploded from the shelter of a corner of a meander and shot up into the air uttering their shrill piping calls. For the benefit of folk not familiar with this species we always say they look like large House Martins in flight due to the bright white underparts and bright white rump, contrasting with the rest of the jet black plumage. They circled high for a while then dropped down in the distance into another part of the river. As John returned from his jungle bash, two more flew up calling and flew high quite a distance away, but no doubt eventually returned to the river. By another meander in the river we watched a Grey Wagtail fly-catching, and in a riverside Willow on the walk back, a mystery greyish bird spotted by Eric, was eventually clinched as a Garden Warbler. Also on the walk back, last-minute attendee Charlotte spotted another Bush-cricket and managed to get a phone pic – a quick look at that confirmed its ID as a Roesel’s Bush-cricket – a great find and a new species for the site. That pic is in the comments on the FB post and in the website post.
David Rich is a keen botanist so to fill in the birdless gaps he found Round-leaved Mint and Marsh Woundwort, and contrasting with the ever present pink of the Himalayan Balsam, was a single plant of Orange Balsam [Impatiens capensis].

All in all an interesting outing, albeit not as birdy as we would have hoped, although we did log 28 species.