Lesser Grey Shrike + Northern Lights! - 10.5.24

Lesser Grey Shrike

There I was just about to settle down for my lunch when James Reader forwarded a message on WhatsApp with news of a Lesser Grey Shrike near the village of Lilley. Having never birder this corner of Herts before I awaited further news and directions and at 3pm I finished work and set off. 50 minutes later and I was on site and found a parking spot right by the entrance to the footpath. After a quick 5 minute walk I joined 5 other birders and was rewarded with excellent views of Hertfordshire’s first ever Lesser Grey Shrike as it flycatched from the trees. 

This was just my 3rd in the UK after a female in Suffolk and a 1st year bird just last October in Cornwall. After 20 minutes I headed back home but not before also seeing a Lesser Whitethroat and a year tick Corn Bunting which was singing from just off the footpath. 

WOW!

A couple of day’s previous my mum had sent me a message saying that there could be a showing of the Northern Lights as the Sun had blasted out a flare of severe magnitude but after many false alerts I wasn’t holding my breath. But as it was upon checking Twitter and a couple of photos from Ben Miller from nearby Berkhamsted of a faint bit of colour above I jumped in my car and drove up to Great Gaddesden where it’s a bit darker but apart from a vague bit of green I was left disappointed.

That was until I got back home and climbed out of my car and looked up to see vivid pink and green in the sky! I walked into the front room and told my wife who joined me in the garden as it picked up and filled the whole sky from west to east. I woke our kids up just so they could see it and I managed some great photos on my phone complete with many colours. Seeing the aurora borealis was high on my bucket list but I didn’t expect to see them over the house! After about 40 minutes they faded away but the memory of it won’t.

Alpine Accentor - 5.5.24

 

Alpine Accentor

There I was mowing the grass at home when a message came through of an Alpine Accentor having been found in Buckinghamshire of all places by a man looking for rare mosses! A few minutes later it was revealed to be in Pitstone Quarry and became the first modern day inland record!! Sadly like the Stilt it was within view of the Herts border but refused to budge. 

I contacted Ben Miller who was on site and said it’d gone missing for the last 90 minutes so I carried on gardening. George Moreton called a bit later to say he was watching it so I decided to head up and nabbed Ben’s parking spot. Access into the quarry was fun and after a gruelling few minutes I joined the group of birders watching the bird and was treated to excellent views of it feeding on a small cliff face. This was much better viewing than my only previous record at Minsmere back in 2002. I watched it for about 20 minutes or so before joining Matt and his wife on a much nicer walk back to the car. Yellowhammer and Lesser Whitethroat were nice bonus year ticks. 

Cassiobury- 1.5.24

An early start at work due to after school childcare problems proved to be a good thing as upon arrival and whilst unlocking the front gates to our yard I heard a Firecrest singing from trees near the tennis courts! My 2nd self found Firecrest this year while at work. 10 minutes later and it’d moved north into the park and that was it.

Herts Local Patch Competition - 27-28.4.24

Another year had passed and it was time for the local patch competition. I was on site at 5.10am at Wilstone Reservoir but sadly it was raining and did so for the first 3 hours and even sat in the hide it was freezing cold. 

Hirundines started appearing including my first House Martins of the year. Common Tern and Sedge Warbler were also year firsts and just as I was leaving the hide Ian Williams said he had a Swift near the car park steps. Another year tick and brought up 150 species for the year. A couple of Reed Warbler were had at cemetery corner before I ventured over to the other reservoirs. News was coming in of tern movement in surrounding counties so it wasn’t much of a surprise when I’d finished walking around Tringford Reservoir that Dave Bilcock had a found a Little Tern back at Wilstone. I rushed back and got onto it. 30 minutes after it was found it flew up and away to the SW having only been seen by 5 of us. It was just my 2nd for Tring and 3rd for Herts. It was also the rarest bird seen in the county that weekend so has won me the prize of a painting of the bird by Matt Moreton. A nice Arctic Tern was also seen and the number had risen to 3 by the time I left to visit College Lake and Pitstone Quarry. 

Even though I couldn’t count what was at College Lake as it was just in Bucks I still popped in and saw the 2 Barnacle Geese present one of which has a yellow ring Y65 which was from one of the feral populations from Bedfordshire. The quarry was full of water which after the amount of rain we’ve had recently was much of a surprise.

12.5 hours later and I’d seen 68 species but was miles behind the leaders.

Black-winged Stilt

With heavy rain forecast for most of the morning I decided to have a lay in before heading back up but as it was I felt a bit rubbish and was preparing to miss the whole day. But as is so often with birding a good bird turns up and this time it was a female Black-winged Stilt just over the border in Bucks. I predicted the future by saying it’d avoid setting down in Herts and go to College Lake. Frustratingly it was seen to fly into Herts airspace and guess what? It was then seen at College Lake! Having seen the pair there 5 years previously I wasn’t going to bother but after being told it was flighty  went hoping it’d do the right thing  sadly it didn’t and just fed at the far side of the reserve before falling asleep just as the reserve closed. Still a nice addition to the patchwork challenge if nothing else. Common Sandpiper was a year tick and a pair of Shelduck dropped in for all of 3 minutes.

Norfolk Weekend - 20-21.4.24

As it was my step mothers 60th birthday we popped up for the weekend arriving Friday evening after a nightmare 4 and a 1/4 hour journey. Saturday morning dawned and as the rest of the family decided to use the in-site pool I headed over to Winterton Dunes for a couple of hours birding. The dunes themselves were dead so I tucked myself up behind one of the huts in the car park and had a seawatch. 

The first bird of note was a year tick Whimbrel that headed north just offshore. A little while later I picked up a distant small duck that was heading towards me. It then banked and headed north showing it to be a drake Garganey which was my first ever from a seawatch! Another Whimbrel, 6 Brent Geese and 100+ Gannet were also noted. The last good bird was a brief adult Yellow-legged Gull in the car park which was sadly flushed by dogs. 

Sunday and it was time for home. A quick stop off at Foxholes Heath in Suffolk drew a blank for Stone Curlews and apparently it turned out they’d not been seen there for a couple of years. 3 male Wheatear were some nice compensation though.

Another stop at Sandon in Herts failed again for Corn Bunting but 4 male Yellow Wagtail were stood on the road and made the year list. 

Leavsden - 2.4.24

Driving home from my mums I got stuck in a little bit of traffic just outside Leavsden Studios (of Harry Potter fame) and heard a Whitethroat singing from the hedge out front. Magical!

County Tick - 30.3.24

News had emerged of Goshawks being present in Herts and so on the Easter Saturday I was up early and headed the 20 or so minutes over to the site and parked up. I got myself set up and prepared for a long wait. 3 minutes later and I noticed 3 birds circling over the front edge of the woods so I got my scope on them. The first 2 were Buzzards and the 3rd was of a similar size but slate grey on the upper parts, whitish underparts and showed a fairly distinct white supercilium. It was a female Goshawk! This was my first county tick since the Green-winged Teal in January 2022.

It circled around again before it suddenly dived into the trees presumably hunting and vanished. I hung around for another 40 minutes and noted 20+ Buzzard, 25+ Red Kite, 4 Stock Dove, 6+ Lesser Redpoll and a single Sparrowhawk. 

Tring + College Lake

Just my second visit of the year to Tring started off well with a small group of Sand Martin in the NW corner along with a single Swallow. By the Waddesden Estate gate near the path up to the dry canal I heard a Willow Warbler singing and just my 2nd patch RN Parakeet flew west. 150+ Golden Plover were seen to the north of Wilstone in flight and the Pink-footed Goose was still present. The other 3 reservoirs held nothing of note but College Lake had 2 Oystercatchers, 2 Redshank and 5 Snipe which were my first of the year! 

Scotland Day 2

Black Guillemot

Black Guillemot

Red-breasted Merganser

After an indifferent nights sleep and morning fry up we headed back to Saltcoats where even before the car had stopped I picked out a couple of stunning Black Guillemots. In the end we had 10 birds and they were showing so well we could hear them calling and see them swimming underwater. Singles of Razorbill and Red-breasted Merganser were also seen along with yesterdays 3 Purple Sandpipers.

Bullfinch

We then headed up to Lochwinnoch RSPB reserve in another new birding county for me Renfrewshire.  We crossed over the road and walked down the track to view over Barr Loch. Scattered over this Loch and Castle Semple Loch on the other part of the reserve were over 50 Goldeneye and a dozen Goosander. But the main prize on Barr Loch was the female Lesser Scaup that I managed to pick out in with a group of tufties. This was my 3rd in Britain but my first female. A female Long-tailed Duck was on Castle Semple Loch and a very showy pair of Bullfinch were seen in roadside bushes. 

After a quick cuppa we headed for home and I arrived back about 8pm. Thanks to Brendon for the fantastic driving even when full of lurgy and to Rick as usual for his company. 

Durham + Scotland

Yellow-rumped Warbler

Last autumn saw the biggest number of American passerines to ever appear on our shores with mega rarities from Scilly to Shetland and so it was hoped that during the winter some more would be unearthed. 

A Northern Waterthrush in Essex wasn’t what I’d hoped for as I’d seen the Scilly bird back in 2011 but then news broke on the 20th February of a Yellow-rumped (Myrtle) Warbler visiting a garden in Ayrshire. This one I did need having not being able to get up for the last mainland bird in Durham 10 years previously. 

Plans were made to head up with Chris Sharp but they were cancelled when he was told he had ‘his own surprise’ retirement party to attend! 

More plans were then made with Brendon Fagan and Ricky Flesher and so at 5am we headed north but not straight to Scotland but first to County Durham. We had a quick stop at Barnard Castle not to check our eyesight but to try for Dipper. Sadly the river level was too high and so we struck out. 

Langdon Beck was our next stop. This was a new site for me and looked very impressive and even more so when we spotted a couple of nice male Black Grouse. These were embarrassingly my first since I ticked them in Scotland way back in 1991! Further down the road we did see a Dipper on a small river and then Rick picked out a Red Grouse. A Barn Owl flying just after 11am was a bit of a surprise as were displaying Curlew which I can’t recall having seen before. 

After our fill in England we headed north of the border and arrived at Kilwinning just after 3pm. We parked up, crossed the road and walked through 2 sets of doors in a housing block and into the tiny garden where we joined 4 other birders. After a couple of minutes we heard a call very reminiscent of Long-tailed Tit but it was coming from a pale bird with a yellow rump! Eventually it came down to feed on the numerous bird feeders and showed brilliantly on and off. I was watching my first ever YELLOW-RUMPED WARBLER which was my 9th species of American wood warbler (my favourite family group).

After taking it in for about half an hour we moved onto Saltcoats. Here we checked the harbour for Black Guillemots but they weren’t around. 3 Purple Sandpiper were thought along with many Eider and a handful of year ticks out at sea. By now we were all knackered and hungry so retired to our hotel for dinner and sleep.