Little, Pecker and Dick’s - 9.3.25

Apologies for the title but I couldn’t resist! 

I started the day off in deepest darkest Buckinghamshire. Here I heard but unfortunately didn’t see a Firecrest. This was followed by not 1 but 3 Lesser Spotted Woodpeckers. They were drumming, calling and even display flighting which I don’t recall seeing in all the years I saw them in Cassiobury Park. 

I then visited Woodoaks Farm where after a bit of searching I managed to find a Little Owl. Sadly it seems Cassiobury has this year lost it resident Little Owls joining the LS Woodpeckers in their park extinction. 

Little Owl

My final destination was Newport Pagnell in north Bucks. On the map Bury Field didn’t look that big but upon arrival I realised it was about the size of Cassiobury Park! How was I going to find a single bird here?! Thankfully I spotted a fellow birder at the northern end so I asked him if he’d been lucky and he said he’d had the bird in question about 10 minutes earlier. About 15 minutes elapsed before another birder looked as if he was on it and sure enough he was. There on the short grass was my 10th Richard’s Pipit in the UK. It showed well for a minute or so before walking into the long grass and then only showed in flight. 

Of those 10 this was only my second away from Scilly with the other one being seen in Norfolk. 

A handful of Meadow Pipits, male Reed Bunting and Mistle Thrush were also noted and typically whilst walking back to the car a Little Owl started calling from an adjacent farm.

Somerset - 22.2.25

After a last minute bit of organisation I once again joined Brendon this time for a trip to Somerset. Our first stop was Steart Marshes WWT. We made good time and walked to the hide and thanks to Cliff Smith I looked in his scope and got straight onto a trio of waders. One was a Dunlin, one was a Little Stint which was embarrassingly my first for over 9 years and lastly was the smallest wader in the world a Least Sandpiper. This was my 3rd in the UK after one in Hertfordshire and one on Scilly. 

After a while something spooked most of the birds and the three waders vanished so we headed off towards Cheddar Gorge. Here we hoped to see a Dipper on the river but we were out of luck so next stop was the wonderfully named Wookey Hole! With some directions I eventually picked one up on the last bit of river visible. It soon flew off and so we headed for home via Salisbury Plain.

A dozen Great Bustard were seen distantly as well as at least 10 Corn Bunting. 

Amwell + Bramfield - 21.2.2

Red-necked Grebe courtesy of Stuart Fox

News broke mid morning of a Red-necked Grebe at Amwell NR so I decided to head over and 40 minutes later I arrived and walked up the footpath to Sheepcote Pit just before the railway line. The last good bird I’d seen on here was Herts 2nd ever Lesser Yellowlegs way back in 2002. Views were very restricted through the trees but eventually the bird swam out into an open area. It was just my 3rd for Herts after a moulting adult and a juvenile together at Wilstone in 2005.

After some more views I headed up to the Gladwin Hide where quite quickly I found the redhead Smew sat out of the water on the edge of one of the islands.

Smew

With 2 nice county birds under the belt I decided to try for the hat trick by heading to the village of Bramfield. Here in the grounds of the village church I learned that I’d narrowly missed my intended target and it was another 30 minutes before I finally laid eyes on my first Hawfinch of the year as it flew in from the NE and quickly vanished behind the trees.

Norfolk - 19.2.25

 As I’m off for the half term week I thought I’d have a day out in Norfolk and as I had a rubbish nights sleep I was up and on the road by 5.30am. My first stop was Lynford Arboretum where I hoped I’d see some Hawfinch but sadly there was no sign. I did however manage a Marsh Tit year tick so all wasn’t lost.

I then headed a few miles up the road to the not so secret location where within a few seconds I’d seen 2 Goshawk flying over the woods.

Heacham beach was my next stop off point where again within a minute I’d seen the small flock of  15 Snow Bunting after they were flushed by beach goers  on the sea was an adult Mediterranean Gull and a few Red-breasted Merganser.

I then paid my second visit to Old Hunstanton beach of the year  this time I was more successful as 5 Shorelark were showing well. The Glaucous Gull however was present just before I arrived but had again vanished and wasn’t reported again until I was about 10 minutes from home!

Shorelark

To break up the journey home I popped to Welney where hundreds of swans were in surrounding fields. I scanned through and as soon as I’d ticked a Whooper Swan for the year I moved onto the WWT reserve where from the car park I year ticked a single Tree Sparrow.

My final stop was Sandon in North Herts but sadly no sign of any Grey Partridge or Corn Bunting.

Cornwall - 2.2.25

After almost 12 hours sleep (I must be getting old!) we awoke to drizzle and a slightly less windy day. Mousehole was our first port of call and after maybe 20 minutes Brendon said he had a good candidate for the Pacific Diver out by the bouy. After a few minutes I got onto it and yes it looked so good because it was one! My 3rd Pacific Diver in the UK and after missing the long returning Cornish bird from a few years ago it was nice to finally add it to my fledgling Cornish list. Yesterday’s eagle was number 200 but it’ll go down once some lumping of species on the British list comes in. 

As I was watching the diver 6 birds flew into join it. They were 6 Black-throated Divers! The most I’d seen at the same time was 3 on a couple of occasions so this flock doubled that record. After a few minutes the 6 flew off SW and we headed off to the Hayle. Again not much was happening on Ryan’s Field but just past the hide I disturbed 2 crests from some bramble. In the brief view I had they both looked to have white eye stripes. I picked them up in a tree and sure enough they were Firecrests. A few seconds later a male Bullfinch zoomed passed us at eye level and onto the year list. With nothing of note on the estuary we treated ourselves to a lovely Philps pastie!

On our way home we popped into Dozmary Pool near Bodmin where at the far end was a pair of Ring-necked Ducks but the weather was so awful I watched them for about a minute before retiring back to the car. 83 species were seen over the weekend including 13 year ticks which took my year list up to 146.

Cornwall 1.2.25

Booted Eagle courtesy of Chris Griffin

Back in October a pale morph Booted Eagle was found in the far SW of Cornwall but sadly I was on Scilly at the time and despite giving it a couple of hours once we got back to the mainland we didn’t see it. Fast forward to November when a dark morph bird was found at Henley on Thames but again I failed to see it and I thought that was my chance gone.

But then on 12th January a pale morph bird was seen just to the north of Marazion Marsh and it stayed faithful to a small area. Sadly for various reasons I couldn’t get down there until the start of February. Photographic evidence showed it was the same bird from October but where had it got to for 3+ months?!

So along with Brendon we set off from my house at 2am I drove down and arrived just after 7.30am. I parked in the A30 lay-by and got set up. Considering it’d been present for nearly 3 weeks there was still around 30 birders present and at about 8.50 someone said they thought they had it on the ground at the end of the pines and sure enough there it was. It jumped in the air a couple of times showing off its distinctive underwing before flying up onto a hedge. Here it sat for a couple of minutes before it took flight and went behind a farm before being seen crossing the A30 just to the north. BOOTED EAGLE was at last on my list!

After that excitement we headed into Penzance where on the rocks adjacent to the Jubilee Pool we saw at least 60 Purple Sandpiper, 20 Ringed Plover and 70 odd Sanderling. On the far side of the pool a Kittiwake was showing well.

We then headed over to Mousehole where from Cliff Road we saw many more Kittiwake, numerous auks and at least 6 Great Northern Diver but sadly the Pacific Diver eluded us. 

Sennen was the next stop where at the far west end of the beach coming into the garden of the last house I noted 20 Chough. Not a bad garden tick! On the rocks by the lifeboat station we saw this stunning male Black Redstart.

Black Redstart

The last stop was the Hayle Estuary where 5 Goosander, 200+ Dunlin and an adult Mediterranean Gull were seen. 67 species seen today and I was in bed by 8.30pm!

Essex - 19.1.25

I joined Brendon Fagan on a trip to our neighbouring county to the east with our first stop being Hanningfield Reservoir. This was my first visit to this site and I’m always saying I wish we had a reservoir this big in Herts to try and draw some birds in but having to drive to different parts of it to view might become a drag! Anyway after about 5 minutes I finally picked up the female Velvet Scoter by the tern rafts along with 5 Goosander.

Driving though Goldhangar I noticed a field with a small flock of Curlew in it along with 3 Peahen!

Eventually we arrived at Abberton Reservoir and headed straight to the Layer Breton causeway. From here we saw singles of White-fronted and Pink-footed Goose and just around the corner 2 Cattle Egret. 

From the Layer de la Haye causeway we ticked off 2 Slavonian and 14 Black-necked Grebe and then from other viewpoints around the reservoir I noted 20+ Goosander, 5 Great White Egret, Black-throated Diver, Spoonbill, 3 Scaup, 2 Green Sandpiper, Ruff and a Marsh Harrier.

We finished the day at Copt Hall farm where distantly from the car park I picked out the Great Grey Shrike perched atop the hedgerow.

Up to 130 species for the year.

Local Birding - 12.1.25

I started my day at a frozen Verulamium Park in St.Albans where after a few minutes the Yellow-browed Warbler that’d been present for a week or two flew out of the trees in the island and into the large oak tree where it showed well for a few minutes. It was my 4th in Herts and only my 4th winter record in the UK.

I then wandered up to the cathedral where I spotted one of the Peregrines sat upon the roof. Then it was sitting on a bench looking at a small diamond shaped window near the top of the building above the main entrance. After about 5 minutes the Black Redstart (presumably last years bird) appeared at the wi down and then flew off about 10 seconds later.

I then popped up to College Lake where among other things I noted 8 Red-crested Pochard and a winter plumaged Black-necked Grebe.

I finished the day at Startops/Marsworth where a Great White Egret and female Goosander made the year list.

North Norfolk - 3.1.25

George Moreton asked if I fancied joining him on a day out in north Norfolk so of course I said yes! We set off from his house at 5am with a hard frost covering the cars and surrounding countryside. 

Just before dawn we arrived at Wolferton triangle where in the past was a go to site for Golden Pheasant but sadly they’ve long since disappeared. However on a slow drive around the triangle we had brilliant views of 2 Woodcock on the grass verges.

Old Hunstanton was the next stop but just as we were leaving Heacham I picked up a Barn Owl quartering a field. Upon exiting the car at Hunstanton the cold wind hit and whilst trying to download and sign up to the car parking app my fingertips became so cold I couldn’t feel them! 

Here we went year tick crazy adding waders and gulls and seabirds of varying description but frustratingly not the 2 species we were after. The juvenile Glaucous Gull turned out to be at Thornham Harbour and the 6 Shorelark were seen by another birder while we were there but eluded us.

We popped into Thornham only to find the Glauc had flown off so we headed to Titchwell RSPB where surprisingly the car park was fairly empty for once. 

Escaped Black-winged Stilt

Here we added yet more year ticks including a brief Long-tailed Duck, a very showy Spotted Redshank and a roosting Tawny Owl plus a sadly escapee Black-winged Stilt which had a plastic ring just above its knee. It took me back to when Sammy the stilt graced the same reserve for about 12 years. After a hot chocolate and a lovely pasty we headed over to Holkham.

From a lay-by on the A149 I managed to pick out the top half of a single White-fronted Goose but then the day got all dippy again with no sign of the Long-billed Dowitcher from Lady Ann’s Drive and the Shorelarks in the roped off area had vanished just before we arrived. 

Glossy Ibis

Our final stop of the day was Stiffkey. We parked up along the road to the campsite car park and walked back to view the flood to the south of the road. After a few minutes I finally laid eyes on the Glossy Ibis viewing through the tree branches as it fed with a flock of Wigeon.

We had our fill and headed back to the car. Driving down towards the car park a Cattle Egret flew low west over the car with possibly another heading north.

Over the marshes we waited patiently for our main target and were kept preoccupied with Marsh Harriers and Little Egrets until I picked up a female Hen Harrier over towards East Hills. I then found a Merlin perched up a bit closer and then finally the adult female Pallid Harrier came in and perched up on the bridge.

An excellent day with 91 species seen and should’ve been closer to 100 but many expected species were notable by their absence.

Thanks to George for driving and for use of his 2 photos.

Cassiobury Park - 2.1.25

As my wife was off seeing her best friend I took the kids to Cassiobury Park for a wander. We walked around the nature reserve noting 2 pairs of Mandarin on the river. From the bird hide Coal Tit and 8 Siskin made the list and at the fishing lake 2 Little Grebe were noteworthy. Whilst walking back to the car a Kingfisher perched up over the river. Sadly no sign of the Little Owl in their usual trees.