A little local twitching

With nice weather forecast and some free time, I decided to do a Hertfordshire day and mop up a few local year ticks. I really should have gone off to Norfolk where more quality birds were on offer but the thought of a 4am alarm didn't seem that attractive. So, I hatched a plan and set off just before 7 for the furthest part of the route. This was to Wallington near Baldock for the corn buntings which have a  stronghold in the fields there.

It was a bit bleak when I arrived, the sun barely breaking though the morning clag. Even the local buzzards didn't seem to want to fly around and were hopping around more like secretary birds searching for worms!

There are three pull-offs where you can normally find the corn buntings and at the middle one there were 3 or 4 males singing away, their "jangling coins" adding a touch of Spring to the morning.

They are a medium-sized bird with a very stout beak and fortunately do like to sit out in the open when declaring their presence. The sun was now just starting to break through but I had a list to get through so I left them to it and drove the short distance to my next step, Fairlands Lake in Stevenage. A caspian gull has made this its winter home for the last few years and is normally pretty reliable. Today though I couldn't find it, at least not convincingly, amongst all the black-headed and only a very few larger gulls.

The local grebes were busy catching their breakfast though.

I gave up on the hope of the caspian gull and drove to Bramfield churchyard, a known local spot for overwintering hawfinches. By now it was a lovely if slightly chilly day and a flock of small birds were feeding in the yew trees. I immediately got onto a really smart male brambling in with the chaffinches. 

It didn't hang around though and flew off toward the village. For half an hour I wandered the churchyard, spotting smaller finches and redwings feeding on the ground. I thought I could hear the hawfinches calling but couldn't see them. Finally I spied two large finches with enormous nut-cracking beaks on top of the trees.

They seemed to be liking the sunshine but remained very distant. Their beaks are spectacular and can crack very large nuts. After a few minutes they followed the brambling and flew off towards the village. 

For my last stop I went to Lemsford Springs, a small HMWT reserve near St. Albans. It is famous for its population of green sandpipers which number over a dozen and are part of a ringing programme. One is the oldest known green sandpiper at over 14 years old! Once I worked out how to get in, I discovered a beautiful little oasis, with lots of birds and very few people. There are two hides overlooking the clear stream which was a magnet for the green sandpipers,

little egrets,

and a lone grey wagtail.

I had hoped to find the jack snipe which had been spotted recently but there was no sign. Still, a good day, with 4 year ticks and some quality birds.

An old-friend revisited

In January 2022 I took a trip to north Somerset to try for a lifer. It was a Kentish plover which had been visiting the beach at Burnham-on-sea. It was a bird that had been ringed in Germany and spent most of the Winter there. It has now returned to the exact same spot. With a day in Weymouth on Thursday to sort out the central heating I decided to combine seeing this with a few other birds on the way down. I got to Burnham about 7.30, just as the light was coming up. Its an easy twitch, park up on the promenade and scan the mud flats. 

The tide was pretty low but there were a  number of dog walkers on the beach. It took me about 10 minutes to locate the flock of ringed plovers who were just about waking up. I guess there were around 40 birds. At least the elevation of the promenade meant that I could see down into the gulleys. I was joined by another birder which was good as two pairs of eyes are always better than one. Quite quickly we got onto the KP, seemingly still asleep as the back of the beach. It is the bird on the right in the photo below.

Cropping in very heavily you can see the rings on its legs.

I didn't go down onto the beach and risk flushing it for the sake of a better photo so everything is at a fair old distance. The best one I got is below, again a really big crop. You can see how it stands out from the common ringed plovers plovers though. Much lighter on the back with no black-banding. It's also smaller and more delicate. I stayed for about 45 minutes and it never really moved much so I packed up and headed off for my next target.

My next stop was at Shapwick Heath, next to Ham Wall on the Somerset levels. It was only a 30 minute drive. The target this time was a drake American wigeon, which had been on the site since the turn of the year. It was only a 5 minute walk to the tower hide from where the bird had been hanging out with a large flock of its European cousins.

It was a quite discrete pool though to check out and there was another birder in the hide to give me a hand. It was mainly wigeons mallards, tufted duck and teal.

Despite scanning the flock three or four times I couldn't see the American wigeon anywhere. It was a male, and should have stood out with a green rather than brown/ russet head. Finally my companion said he had found it, not on the water with the other birds but asleep on the bank, almost out of sight from where we were. 

With a bit of judicious movement in the hide you could get an angle where it was relatively clear to see.

It is the bird in the middle with the dark head. There is a nice contrast with the Eurasian wigeon with their russet heads and golden crown. For the hour or so I was there it barely woke or moved. Just a couple of times something disturbed it but it quickly went back to sleep again!!!!

I didn't spend too long walking the rest of the reserve but as ever on the levels there were great-white egrets and marsh harriers all over the place and a bittern was booming away in the reed bed.

By the car park a flock of 6 to 8 bullfinches were feeding in the bushes, wheezing away. They mainly stayed high and hidden but a couple of times a big fat male showed itself.

I will discretely pass over my next stop, dipping the rosy-coloured starling in a housing estate in Wiveliscombe, on my way down to Lyme Regis for the regular and resident dipper. 

They live on a small steam running down into the town, accessed from the end of Anning Road. I've been seening them here for years and I guess they are one of the easiest to see. With it being a relatively busy footpath by the side they are also pretty tolerant of people! One was fishing actively in the steam when I was there.

In the last of these photos you can see its white eyelid coming down!

I finished the day with a trip to Wyke Regis where I managed to find the long-staying Richard's pipit. No photos as it was constantly disturbed by the dog walkers but it flew over me a couple of times calling.

A great if tiring day with 5 year ticks and some quality birds in there as well.  Takes me up to 150 BOU but no lifers yet.