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.