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.

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...!

My recent visits to Potwells in North Mymms Park have helped me 're-imagine' birding in Herts and begin to believe that good birds might be found, more regularly...if we look!  The temptation is always to look and travel outside Herts for the best birding, or just to wait for others to turn something up, but I think the best rewards come from doing the legwork and discovering some local birds.

My decision to regularly 'do vismig' or observe visible migration from Potwells was long overdue and regular recent visits have rewarded me with a great selection of birds that I just wouldn't normally see in Herts, at least not every year - Goshawk, Tree Pipit, Woodlark & Hawfinch.  Usually I have to wait for a trip to Dunwich Heath in Suffolk or to Wykeham Forest in North Yorkshire but not only have I now seen these birds locally but also more than once!

Today I arrived at 6am - perhaps a bit too early as it was properly dark but I did get several Tawny Owls calling!  For the first hour, even hour and a half, passage was slow to non-existent but eventually Chaffinches and Meadow Pipits began to call and suddenly a Brambling was flying around overhead!

Siskins were plentiful but just after 7.30am I caught a glimpse of a large finch flying up the valley.  Unfortunately it disappeared before I could really confirm what it was but it made me think "Hawfinch".  I played the call and listened and realised I could hear a ticking call - it grew louder and I picked up the 'tseep' flight call too.  I knew it must be perched somewhere on the edge of the wood and, sure enough, there it was, a nice male Hawfinch!  At the same time I thought I could hear another bird but couldn't see it.

Once a Herts speciality, the Hawfinch is now a very rare breeder in Herts and scarce winter visitor.  I don't usually see them every year in Herts and only got to grips with their various calls during the big influx of the winter of 2017/18 when many birds were around in local woods.  It is still a real treat to find a Hawfinch - something I do every year when I visit a known stronghold at Lynford Arboretum in Norfolk - but this was extra special being in woods local to me.

I kept alert and 2 more Hawfinch flew over headed southwest soon after 8am and a further Brambling too.  Despite otherwise low numbers of passage birds the quality had not been lacking.  Swallows and House Martins also continued to make their way south but otherwise the skies were quieter than in previous visits.  I plan to visit again soon - surely Crossbill and Ring Ouzel must be likely potential additions...?