Redstart!

The beautiful male Redstart on 21st September - photo by Rose Newbold

On 21st Sep news popped up on the Herts Bird Club website of a Redstart near the start of the track from Coopers Green Lane.  Knowing this would be a first for the site both Steve Pearce and I headed over to check the report out.

Admittedly, we weren't entirely confident that we would a) be able to locate the bird and b) that it was actually a Redstart, with Black Redstart perhaps being more likely at this late stage of the autumn.  However, we kept an open mind and began the search while further details came in that it had been in the small clump of bushes down by the water's edge.

Drawing a blank on scanning the obvious hedges we decided to walk around the bushes, a little like we would looking for migrants on the coast.  All of a sudden and a flash of red flew out of the bush and briefly alighted on the gravel bank just long enough for me to register that not only was this a Common Redstart but also a beautiful summer plumaged male bird!

We then followed the bird as it flew into the hedgerow along the long drainage pit before circuiting back to the same bushes by the water.  Eventually, on a second circuit, it gave much better and prolonged views.  Following the recent Dartford Warblers the bird becomes the first (known) record for the site and #161 on the all-time list.