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.
