Knot expected!

Heavy rain and an easterly wind serve Hertfordshire well when it comes to turning up rarer birds.  Expectations were therefore high this last weekend and the news of a Yellow-browed Warbler in the county was encouraging.  Coastal sites were also experiencing big movements of hirundines and rarer warblers were turning up along the east and southeastern coasts.

However, the usual check of sites on Sunday morning produced nothing out of the ordinary and not even a passage of birds overhead.  A visit to Potwells mid-afternoon did result in my first flyover Siskin of the autumn but, while plenty of Chiffchaffs were vocal, nothing else.  However, an alert from a fellow-birder suggested he might have found a Knot at Coursers gravel pits just below the hill I was on.

Time for birding was running out so a quick dash down to the site confirmed that it was indeed a juvenile Knot or Red Knot as per its full name.  Not only a welcome #146 for my Five Miles from Home List but a new species for me in Herts.  Here's a short video taken on my phone through my friend's scope: