Happy New Year everyone!

New Year's Day saw a Herts Bird Challenge to see who could find the most species on New Year's Day and kick-start those year lists.  Sadly the weather was terrible so few ventured into the field and yours truly, being perhaps the most lunatic of all, found the most birds!  No prizes but just the confirmation that time spent in the field, regardless of the weather, can produce a good variety of birds.

Before the rain set in I managed to find 2 of the 3 the long-staying Great White Egrets at Tyttenhanger Gravel Pits along with a brief appearance by an adult Yellow-legged Gull.  The usual species were present including a squealing Water Rail so with 45 species under my belt I headed to Stanborough Gravel Pits.

Again, the usual highlights were present including Wigeon, Stonechat & Green Sandpipers.  A lingering Lesser Redpoll was also a welcome New Year addition.  The real highlight was a single Golden Plover that battled low against the driving wind and rain taking my day total (and year total) to 65.  My nice new notebook was already soaked through with the elastic strap detached from the soggy paper.

A quick visit to Frogmore Lakes on the edge of St Albans got me lovely eye-level views of about 30 Siskins all feeding on alders in the rain.  I finished at Verulamium Park, hoping that the Yellow-browed Warbler might reappear but instead had to settle for Egyptian and Greylag Geese, Peregrines on the Abbey, a Mistle Thrush, and fly-by Kingfisher.  My New Year total finished on 75 species and I went home to dry out!

The next day, I added a Great Spotted Woodpecker and caught up with the juvenile Marsh Harrier at Coursers Gravel Pits.  2025 was off to a good start with 77 species on year list and most importantly on the Five Miles from Home 2025 List!  Now, to focus on my 'other patch' with a trip to The Lizard in Cornwall.

I was preparing myself for an '11th hour' scramble to get to my 150 species target for my annual "Five Miles From Home List" but then Sun 10th Nov dawned and, before I knew it, the target had been achieved.  Sitting comfortably on 148 species for the year, I had assumed another 2 species would be possible but didn't expect to get both in the same day!

The previous day had seen a Black Redstart appear at Stanborough Gravel Pits and a hybrid Caspian Gull so I knew the easterly winds were once again doing their job.  Both species were however already on my list so I still held out hope for something new.

Slow into the field I decided to visit Coursers GPs first and I arrived just after 9am.  As seems to (annoyingly) often be the case, all the birds went up in the air as I arrived, disturbed by some unseen threat - maybe a fox along the bank.  However, this time the melee of birds allowed me to immediately pick out two small waders flying around - Dunlin.  I watched them settle back down along with a larger wader on the distant mud.

My immediate thought was a Redshank but once the scope was focussed I could see it was a Ruff - new to my local year list and the one wader I felt I had missed this year!

There have been very few Ruff records in the county this year so to get one so late on was really pleasing.  The 2 Dunlin stayed close by the Ruff but always distant from me and I left them feeding together to check Stanborough GPs - after all other birds may have arrived elsewhere.

Arriving at Stanborough just long enough to establish that there wasn't anything extra to be seen I got a text from local birder, Steve Pearce, to say that a Red-crested Pochard was on the scrape lagoon at Tyttenhanger GPs!  This is a less than annual bird in the area so I knew I had to back-track the way I had come as this would be the target #150 for the year!

Arriving at Tyttenhanger GPs the male Red-crested Pochard was immediately viewable, staying close into the bank and only a few metres away from us.  A beautiful bird, albeit in Category C as a 'naturalised' bird, this species nevertheless takes the honour of being the cherished 150th species for the year on my Five Miles From Home List. 

That said, I could argue that the Ruff was the true 150th as I have resigned myself to lumping both Mealy Redpoll and Lesser Redpoll together as a single species.  That would make the pochard #151 but I have decided, rightly or wrongly, to align my lists with the current accepted list of species so have to forfeit Mealy and Lesser in favour of just 'Redpoll'.

Before I sign off, it is worth mentioning another sighting that I almost ignored at the time - a smart Caspian Gull at Coursers GPs.  It immediately stood out from the Herring Gulls around it but my mind was on other things.  Thankfully, I took a few record shots that others were able to confirm as a 3rd winter/sub-adult Caspian Gull.

All of this leaves me once again amazed at the sheer variety of species that can be seen in the year all within 5 miles of where I live.  It also leaves me wondering what else might still to be found this year with over a month left to go...I am still missing Great Black-backed Gull after all!