Hyde Park

We finally had an opportunity to go to Hyde Park to see the two female Bearded Tits which have been in the reedbed by the Diana Memorial Fountain for a number of weeks now - they didn't disappoint. The views we had were spectacular, yet ridiculous at times considering we usually struggle to get a glimpse of the bird. It is the first time a Bearded Tit has been seen in inner London.

Bearded Tit

Bearded Tit

Bearded Tit

Bearded Tits

Ring-necked Parakeet

Great Tit

Robin

Big Garden Birdwatch

Quite disappointing figures considering the number of species we've seen in the garden lately.

9 House Sparrow
3 Robin
3 Collared Dove
3 Blackbird
3 Starling
2 Fieldfare
2 Greenfinch
2 Blue Tit
2 Great Tit
2 Chaffinch
2 Dunnock
2 Carrion Crow
2 Woodpigeon
1 Wren
1 Great spotted Woodpecker
1 Magpie

Fieldfares

We've seen Fieldfare this past week from our house for the first time in many years. There were eight in total the other day, as well as a single Redwing drinking water off the drain cover. Since then, I have seen the Redwing again, a Fieldfare in our back garden, as well as five other single Fieldfares throughout Hitchin.

Redwing

Always a nice surprise to find you've shot a bird in flight when you have a look through your photos.

A view of Purwell Ninesprings...

...which will hopefully look like this in four months time!












Other recent highlights include locating a calling Tawny Owl opposite our house, a male Siskin in Hitchin Sainsbury's car park and at least ten Yellowhammer at Oughtonhead Common.

Redwing

We've seen Redwing in Hitchin before, but we saw one in the garden for the first time today. It stayed tucked under a bush for over an hour.

Therfield Heath

Great Grey Shrike

We didn't find any owls but enjoyed a dramatic sunset.

Amwell

Probably our best visit to the reserve. We had good views of a Bittern in the small reedbed in front of the viewpoint, it then swam between two reedbeds. It took be 363 days to see a Bittern last year, but only six this year! We also had good views of three Snipe, two Egyptian Geese, Reed Buntings, two Goldeneye and the Scaup.

Bittern

Bittern

Scaup (right)

Goldeneye











Lesser black-backed Gull (left) & Great black-backed Gull (right)

Bramfield

We had good views of a Hawfinch at the top of the trees in the churchyard, then close and low down. The light was very poor but we still got good views.