Home - 29.1.20

I was just about to pull the living room curtains when I noticed a large looking crow approaching at tree top height from the north. As it was just about to pass over the house I realised it was my first Raven of the year!

Cassiobury Park - 27.1.20

A day spent litter picking the park produced 5 Mandarin and Little Owl for the year list taking me to 129 species drawing me level with this time last year. Other notables were Kingfisher and 30 Siskin.

Norfolk pt 2 - 26.1.20

Caspian Gull

We stayed the night in Sheringham and before breakfast we went to try and see the long staying 1st winter Caspian Gull. As luck would have it the first bird I laid eyes on was it! My second Norfolk tick of the weekend with the wagtail. 4 Red-throated Diver flew past off shore but we failed to see the Purple Sandpiper.

Waxwing

We made our way back west along the coast road stopping off at various places first of which was Salthouse. We parked by the duck pond and upon exiting the car a Chiffchaff gave a brief burst of song! Not something I'd heard before in January. But our main target took a few minutes of searching before it flew in over our heads and showed well before flying off into the distance. My favourite bird the Waxwing.

At Cley a quick walk down the east bank got us the hoped for Bearded Tits.

Wells didn't give us the Rough-legged Buzzard we wanted to see (my 2nd dip of the year for this species!) but Bullfinch was penned into our notebooks.

Our penultimate stop of the day was at the far end of Holkham Freshmarsh where we saw 2 Great White Egret and 3 White-fronted Geese.

Cockley Cley was our last stop but the weather had changed from sunny and calm to cloudy and windy and so that put paid to any hope of seeing Goshawk.

We finished on 115 species which equalled last years total and pushed my year list up to 127.

Norfolk - 25.1.20

George Moreton invited me along on a Norfolk weekender and so at 6am we were on our way North. First stop was Lynford Arboretum where we saw 3-4 Hawfinch in the paddocks with a similar number of Marsh Tit and a lone Reed Bunting. Crossbill were heard distantly but the biggest surprise was a singing Woodlark by the lake!

ABHEY Wagtail!

70+ Golden Plover flew over Ickburgh after leaving Lynford and then it was a 40 minute drive to our next stop at Sedgeford where straight away we connected with the (Alaskan) Blue-headed Eastern Yellow Wagtail on its favoured manure pile!  A couple of Red Kite were also noted.

At Old Hunstanton we dipped a Black Redstart but did add Brent Goose to the list.

Thornham delivered with 10 Twite, a couple of Linnet and Pink-footed Goose.

Bittern

Titchwell saw the list boosted with the following year ticks. Avocet, Bar-tailed Godwit, Grey Plover, 2 Spotted Redshank, Water Rail, Sanderling, Ringed Plover, 3 Long-tailed Duck and a Bittern.

2 of the 8 Cattle Egret

We had a quick visit to Burnham Overy Staithe to try to see the 7 Cattle Egret on the marsh only to find there were 8! This equalled the largest flock I'd seen of the species and that was the then record breaking flock of 8 at Maple Cross back in 1992! 30+ Ruff was a good sight.

Some of the Grey Partridge

Holkham also produced a good list of year ticks with 30 White-fronted Geese, 10 Grey Partridge, 30+ Snow Bunting, 2000+ Common Scoter, Velvet Scoter, Egyptian Goose and a handful of Rock Pipit.


We finished the day off at Stiffkey for the harrier roost. It was a very poor roost with just 2 Hen Harrier being seen and no Marsh Harrier or Barn Owl seen.

More Odds and Sods

A Sparrowhawk flew over Knutsford Rec on the 13th Jan

Lesser Redpoll and Mistle Thrush were added from Cassiobury Park on 15th Jan

A Treecreeper was seen on the 22nd Jan also at Cassiobury Park.

Odds and Sods

More year ticks trickled in through the week at work with Grey Wagtail over my old patch of the Mundens Estate on the 6th, Nuthatch at Garston on the 8th and a fly past Peregrine in Watford on the 9th Jan.

Suffolk - 5.1.20

I joined Brendon Fagan and Terry Smith for a dawn to dusk days birding to Suffolk to try and boost the year list.

First stop was Freston in the shadow of the Orwell Bridge hoping to see a Long-tailed Duck. In the hour or so we were there we failed to see it but did connect with 2 Great Northern Diver, 13 Goldeneye, 6 Knot and a handful of Red-breasted Merganser.

We then headed to Bawdsey to try to see the wintering Rough-legged Buzzard. Again despite looking around its favoured area we failed to see it but I did add Common Buzzard to the list and when I popped to the loo in the picnic car park I heard Goldcrest and when walking back to join the others I accidently flushed a Woodcock that was hidden in the roadside scrub.

As we were 2 minutes away from East Lane pits we went to have a look for the female Scaup that had been reported. Here we completed the hat-trick of dips for the day as there was no sign! But I did note 3 Red-throated Diver offshore.

Siberian Stonechat

Our penultimate destination was Hollesley Marshes RSPB where we were hoping to see a bird that once DNA results come back could become a new species for all 3 of us despite 2 of us having already seen one before! On the walk up I saw a Kingfisher which quickly vanished but once on site we were told its still here and within 5 minutes we all laid eyes on the 1st winter male Siberian Stonechat. Brendon had seen at least 3 and I'd seen one in Kent but since the species had been split into Siberian and Stejneger's Stonechat none of these were tickable so hopefully the DNA will say this is a Siberian and we can finally add it to our respective lists! A male Common Stonechat, female Marsh Harrier and a singing Cetti's Warbler were also added. Just before we got back to the car we scanned over the fields behind Shingle Street and saw the 3 Whooper Swan and I found a nice male Merlin sat in the field which was a bonus.

Whooper Swan and Merlin (dark blob on the right hand side!)

Green-winged Teal

Our last stop of the day was to my favourite reserve Minsmere RSPB. Without checking this could well be my first ever winter visit and it was nice and quiet with no Black-headed Gulls screaming their heads off on the scrapes! After a scan of the Teal we finally saw the male Green-winged Teal fast asleep and 2 more Whooper Swan did a fly-by. On the sea were over 20 Red-throated Diver.

A good day out and I ended the day on 84 species for the year.

2 More

2 Chaffinch over Cassiobury Park and a Kestrel in Kings Langley were new additions to the year list.

Cassiobury Park - 2.1.20

Back to work after 8 days off and only Ring-necked Parakeet and Goldfinch were new for the year list as they flew over the yard.

Wilstone - 1.1.20

My plan was to get up early and head to Tring to kickstart my new year list. In the end I woke at about 10.30am and only had time to wander around Wilstone Reservoir! After adding 10 species at home and a few more on the journey I finished the day on 52 species.the best bird was probably the adult Great Black-backed Gull that briefly dropped in as its not too common a bird there.

End of year review

Another year over and in 2019 I saw 213 species of bird of which just 3 were new. These were Little Bustard, Eastern Olivaceous Warbler and Yellow-billed Cuckoo.

In terms of Herts birding it was the first year since I started county listing in 2001 that I didn't add a new species.

Hopefully 2020 will be more rewarding.

Whipsnade Zoo - 30.12.19

Black-throated Thrush

As I was off work and there was a rare bird at the zoo we had a family day out which thankfully didn't cost us a penny due to knowing someone who knew someone who worked there and so soon after opening I got decent views of the lovely male Black-throated Thrush. It was my 2nd in the UK after seeing one in Somerset 14 years and 1 day earlier! I'm hoping along with all Herts birders that once its eaten all the Cotoneaster berries it'll fly the short distance to Herts for us to tick.

Wilstone - 28.12.19

Smew

Little Egret

Peregrine

With no birding done since getting back from Scilly I thought I'd get out for a bit and visit Tring in the hope of seeing one of my favourite birds. I got into the hide and within a minute was lucky enough to lay eyes on the drake Smew for a couple of minutes before it swam out of view. I had a quick go on my new camera and was impressed with the photos taken in the gloom. A Kingfisher put in a brief appearance and in a tree behind the hide a Peregrine had a preen.