Double-checking my 2024 lists I realised I'd made a couple of omissions despite my best efforts.  Well, maths never was my strong point but somehow I managed not to add either Rock Pipit or Hobby to my Five Miles From Home local list, despite mentioning them in blog posts! 

With these additions, it turns out last year really was a record-breaking year for me with 153 species recorded within 5 miles of home.  The notable 150th species was not actually the Red-crested Pochard that I wrote about on 16th Nov 2024 but the far more suitable Yellow-browed Warbler I found at Redwell Wood Farm on 9th Oct 2024.  I had crossed the line earlier than I thought!

The counting has not stopped either and I mused at the end of my last post about the possibility of reaching 100 species before the end of January.  Well, I think I might be in with a chance given the week or even the last few days I've just had!

A brief visit to Tyttenhanger GPs took me along the footpath at the back of Garden Wood and what should fly out but a Hawfinch.  It had no doubt been feeding on the yew berries at about head height but then flew into the wood at treetop height.  I walked into the wood a little way and stood in a clearing, trying not to fall down the many rabbit holes.

I saw it fly again so followed it and then I glimpsed it fly back into the top of a tall pine but I could not see it.  I walked back to my original spot in the clearing and caught the tiniest of movements at the top of the tree.  Zooming in with my bridge camera I could just make it out sitting perfectly still on a branch and almost hidden.

I set up my phone on my telescope and tripod in the hope that it would give better views but it flew down into the yews and I thought I'd lost it.  I walked in the direction it had gone and all of a sudden there it was, perched lower down and in full view!  The video below says everything and is certainly the best recorded views I ever had of a Hawfinch.

The Hawfinch was #95 for my local list and a most unexpected and welcome addition!  But more was to come the next day...

I spent the next morning working in town (St Albans) but planned to walk back home along the River Ver at lunchtime. I went via Verulamium Park as my daughter was walking Max the dog so I joined her to walk home together.  However, it seemed rude not to walk the length of the lake to see if the Yellow-browed Warbler was showing - it was but we had just missed it so I scanned the Black-headed Gulls instead.

Out of the 10-20 Black-headed Gulls on the small boating lake one immediately grabbed my attention: a first winter Mediterranean Gull! I love Med Gulls - they are superficially similar to Black-headed Gulls but always very smart in whatever plumage age or season they are in.  I only had my binoculars with me but thankfully local birder and photographer Rose Newbold took some great shots for the record.

The Med Gull of course took me to #96 but I had one more target in mind - the Bullfinches reported at the Watercress Local Nature Reserve - on my route home.  On arrival the reserve was buzzing with activity as usual including a sizeable flock of Siskins intermingled with some Redpolls and other finches.  I waited awhile and then, sure enough a female Bullfinch appeared followed by a beautiful male - #97!

But the day was not yet over and a message from a friend at Shafford Farm informed me that a Blackcap was visiting his bird feeders.  I jumped in the car and carried out a 'mini-twitch' to see the lovely male Blackcap in his garden - #98.

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!