A call to the Jims this morning to organise a bit of birding in Hertfordshire saw us heading up the A10 arriving at Bramfield church around 9am. With a few people already on site but no Hawfinch in the churchyard I headed off alone to the fields beyond the church where I found three Hawfinch with a large flock of Greenfinch and Yellowhammers. As I got the Jims and a couple of other birders to come down the birds flew off but before long I'd found a single bird for them all to enjoy. Later a Bullfinch joined the flock giving great views in the bins. Back in the churchyard I spotted a female Brambling in a small group of Chaffinch and what looked very much like a Goshawk over the distant woods.
We moved on to Lemsford Springs just six miles away but found no keys at the wardens house so waited for about thirty minutes when the warden returned home. He offered to go down to the hide and get a key for us but didn't return but we managed to enter the reserve as a large group returned. In the hide we enjoyed views of at least six Green Sandpiper and four Snipe along with Teal, Grey Wagtail, Siskin and Little Egret. We had hoped for Jack Snipe as the temperature had dropped but couldn't find any in the limited time we had. We dropped a couple of coins in the brown envelope at the wardens house and left for home.
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| Green Sandpiper |
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| Green Sandpiper |
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| Little Egret |
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| Snipe |
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| Snipe |
On the way home I decided St.Albans was worth a visit as we were so close and as we walked up to the cathedral we saw three birders near the picnic area looking skyward. As we approached it was clear they had the Black Redstart in the tree so I joined them and managed a couple of record shots before walking down to the lake where I had fantastic views of a Kingfisher to wrap up a tremendous morning in Hertfordshire.
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| Black Redstart |
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| Black Redstart |
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| Kingfisher |
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| Kingfisher |
Year list now 146.
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