Since leaving Cornwall a week has already gone by and each day has delivered one or two additions to the 2025 5 Miles From Home List.  In fact I am 6 species up on the same date last year so the local area has certainly been delivering!  Since my Cornish trip I have added a further 17 species to the list - some of them expected such as Greenfinch, Sparrowhawk, Green Woodpecker, Raven and Red-legged Partridge but others not so expected.

The Little Owl headlining this post is always a pleasing find - especially as this one at Tyttenhanger Gravel Pits has been harder to find in recent years.  After what appeared to be a good year with 2 pairs at nest holes they then disappeared and have not been regularly seen in the last couple of years.  Knowing they are still there is reassuring as I know of at least two other sites where the main nest tree has been felled - either by the land manager or by strong winds.

Two star birds reappeared while I was away - the Yellow-browed Warbler at Verulamium Park in St Albans and the Black Redstart over-wintering in the roof of St Albans Abbey.

The Yellow-browed Warbler had been giving astonishing views low down at the lake's edge but I had to make-do with treetop views.  Local birder Murray Brown had re-found it on 7th January after it went missing during Christmas.  The Black Redstart - presumably last year's returning bird - was a somewhat peculiar sighting in that the bird has taken up residence in the cathedral roof.  It's believed to be feeding on a healthy supply of Ladybirds but can only be seen when it appears at a small diamond-shaped window at the west end.  I trust it knows how to get out but is no doubt benefiting from the shelter and free food!

The same day saw me visit Stanborough GPs where I flushed a Jack Snipe and Garden Wood at Tyttenhanger GPs where I found an over-wintering Firecrest - both great birds to get on my list so early on.  I was a bit slow with the camera but did manage a distant shot of the Jack Snipe as it (unusually) chose to fly around quite high before dropping back down.

A very pleasing find on 14th came in the form of a Woodcock in a wood at Highfield Farm on the edge of St Albans.  It has become my most reliable site for the birds and will hopefully remain that way for many years more.  A dog walk around the Munden Estate, Bricket Wood the next day gave me a pair of Mandarin Ducks but these were out done on 19th with a flock of 15 at Coopers Green GPs!  The dog walk the next day brought brief views of a Barn Owl that has been regularly hunting at Redbournbury and at least 2 of the resident Cetti's Warblers there.  My list now stood at 90 species.

I was extremely pleased to get the Barn Owl - after all I've yet to hear or see a Tawny Owl this year.  However, that same evening I popped into Stanborough GPs and was rewarded with a distant Short-eared Owl.  It appeared to fly up from Cromer Hyde farm but then headed off north-west flying higher and higher.  This is a real bonus bird as I didn't record one locally in the whole of 2024 despite there being 4 in the area at the end of 2023.  To have it 'in the bank', so to speak, this early on bodes well for the 2025 year list!

The week was not done however and with gulls on my radar I spent some time checking local roosts.  I trekked out to the back of Coursers Farm where a newly scraped area has been attracting gull flocks.  After some scanning I was rewarded with an adult Caspian Gull that with the Little Owl took me to #93.  A visit to Coopers Green GPs today also revealed a healthy gull roost with a surprise Great Black-backed Gull among them.  This is a bird I usually have to wait until Christmas to see and is maybe the bird that appeared at Coursers GPs this Christmas just gone.  Either way, it takes me to 94 species for my local list and begs the question as to whether 100 is possible before the end of January?  Watch this space...!

It's been a 'Goshawk year' for me with several rare chance encounters rather than the usual sightings at well-known viewpoints in Yorkshire or the New Forest.  This magnificent bird of prey with its near-mythical status thanks to its rarity and secretive habits had, until this year, eluded me locally.  And yet, with reports of this species spreading nationally, it seemed only a matter of time before I would encounter one in Herts.

And indeed, on 16th March this year I stood in the garden observing a particularly good passage of Buzzards overhead when I suddenly spotted a soaring Goshawk with 2 or 3 Common Buzzards.  Immediately identifiable by its classic shape it appeared to be an adult bird with very white undersides and possibly a female given it was almost the same size as the Buzzards it soared with.  Typically, no camera to hand it disappeared out of sight - a new species for the garden list and for my 5-miles from home local patch list.

A few days later I decided to check out a place that has for a long time been mooted as a possible sight for local Goshawks - Prae Wood in the Gorhambury Estate on the edge of St Albans.  My first visit with another local birder gave us a few 'likely' sightings encouraging us but not convincing us 100%.  A bonus bird took the form of a Woodlark flying up the valley but the Goshawk remains a real rarity and better views were needed before I could be sure!

A few days later I tried another viewpoint which gave reasonable views over the main woodland and was rewarded quite quickly with 2 separate Goshawks soaring up on several occasions before quickly dropping back down and out of sight.  The best view came as a Goshawk rose up only to be dived on by a Sparrowhawk - something I never thought I'd see in St Albans!  The Sparrowhawk looked tiny compared to the Goshawk and I wished I had got my digi-scope setup ready in time.

​Sadly, all the views were too brief to secure decent shots of the birds so others would just have to take my word for it!  Despite a couple of others seeing the birds in subsequent days it felt like a question mark remained for the doubting Thomas' of the bird-world.  With a bird like the Goshawk, it seems seeing really is believing!  A few later visits to the woods did not produce any further views and whether these birds bred or not remains to be seen.

I had a number of other Goshawk encounters as the year went on with a bird soaring high over the New Forest and one that cut past almost at ground level when visiting the well-known hotspot that is Acres Down.  Unusually, on a return trip from Cornwall, a bird cruised across the A303 on Salisbury Plain as I drove.  Already, my Goshawk tally for the year was above average.

It was a real surprise therefore when one of my recent visits to Potwells in North Mymms Park on 28th August produced the best sighting of all - a local bird and one that soared long enough for me to capture some all-important photographs.  A fresh juvenile bird, evident from it's orangery-buff plumage causing speculation that this might indeed be a locally raised bird.  Of course, it may have just been passing through and sadly, to date, no further sightings have been made.  That said, Goshawk is firmly on my local radar and hopefully it won't be too long before breeding in the county is confirmed.

One of the great joys and frustrations of birding is that every year is different! Come August, I am out looking for autumn migrants - flycatchers, warblers, redstarts and chats - walking the fields, scanning the hedgerows and checking the local gravel pits for waders too.  I check dates from previous years when I discovered birds and the frustration grows if those dates pass and still no birds!

This August has proved fairly quiet so far with a trickle of expected waders - Greenshank, Ringed Plover and Dunlin - and, while foraging tit flocks have grown, nothing out of the ordinary has revealed itself.  I have had to content myself instead with the usual fayre of Willow Warblers, Chiffchaffs, Lesser and Common Whitethroats, Blackcaps and Garden Warblers.  Of course, watching these flocks is enjoyable and I recently watched group of perhaps a hundred birds pushed this way and that through the trees by a stealthy Sparrowhawk.

While not rare at all by most people's standards, this little bird, at least for me, constituted the first 'proper' autumn discovery and my first for the year anywhere in the UK.  I'm sure there'll be plenty more this autumn but for the moment my 'birding battery' was recharged!

Thankfully I didn't have to wait long for the next boost as the headline photo suggests.  A call yesterday from a local friend alerted me to his discovery of a Pied Flycatcher along the River Ver near his house.  This is a truly good migrant bird to catch up with and one that I don't always see every year so without hesitation I was there, bins in hand, camera at the ready!

Thankfully the bird gave great and prolonged views as it sallied for insects and grubs low down in the scrub by the river.  Many of my previous encounters with these birds have been all too brief as they are masters of disappearing and, when active, can flit fast and furiously within the canopy, denying good views.  This one, however, gave some of the best view I've had to date and took my "Five Miles From Home" year list to 141.