With the grim news of another lockdown, caused by the vast surge in Covid-19 cases and deaths due to the new strain of the virus, early in the month it became clear that I would be spending a lot of my time in January doing local bird watching. A 'local patch' walk on the 6th provided me with a list of 47 species recorded (42 seen), with the 'star' bird being a peregrine, seen on the ground to the west of the Icknield Way at Park Farm before it took off and headed north. This was the first bird of prey, other than the four locally breeding species (kestrel, sparrowhawk, buzzard and red kite) that I had seen locally in Hertfordshire for almost a year. Around 250 fieldfares were seen in various places along my route. Other birds recorded included grey and red-legged partridges, bullfinches and corn buntings. The young mute swan on Mardleybury Lake had been joined by eight Canada geese.
Fieldfare, Therfield, 6 January
A visit to Scales Park (Anstey) on the 7th produced my first nuthatches, treecreepers and (after much searching) marsh tits of the year. Another long walk on the 8th took me right across The Heath. Lapwings (10+) were seen at Greys Farm, where around 150 common gulls were feeding on a ploughed field before taking off and 'kettling' (spiralling around) above my head. A pair of treecreepers were busy looking for invertebrates in tree nooks and crevices in Jubilee Wood, at the west end of the heath.
Common Gulls in Flight, Therfield, 8 January
Royston's first rarity of the year (and the winter), in the form of a male black redstart, was discovered by Tony Cobb at the back of the trading estate at the north end of Royston on the 10th. Although the bird showed well on the 10th, by the time I visited on the 11th it was nowhere to be seen and I drew a blank on subsequent visits. A continuation of the poor weather that had affected my bird watching in December meant that I didn't get out much in the following week, with the only bird sightings of note being a nuthatch that came to my garden feeders on the 15th and a pair of ravens and a 'flyover' herring gull at the west end of Therfield Heath on the 18th. A little further west, no fewer than 182 fallow deer were grazing on the fields between Thrift Farm and Coombe Road. Numerous red kites were seen on this walk.
Red Kite, Therfield Heath, 28 January
The following day I decided to walk from my house in Royston, east along the Icknield Way to Heydon Pig Farm, a distance of just over five miles, to look for rare gulls (including Kumlien's gull, the Canadian sub-species of Iceland gull), that had been reported there in recent weeks. I couldn't find the Kumlien's gull, but did see at least one adult yellow-legged gull, an adult great black-backed gull and a probable second winter Caspian gull there, as well as at least 500 starlings, lots of corvids and a nearby flock of about 200 lapwings. My limited gull ID skills are not much use in the field - I rely on taking photos of the birds (preferably in flight) and then looking at wing and body markings to aid identification. Even then I am heavily reliant on two excellent books, the Collins Bird Guide (2nd edition) and the photographic guide to Britain's birds (Hume et. al; 2nd edition) for convincing me of species and age. I could still be wrong: feel free to disagree with my findings on the images below. To be honest, the walk out to and back from the pig farm is pretty boring, so if I go back I'll probably take the car!
Second Winter Caspian Gull (?) Heydon Pig Farm 19 January
Adult Yellow-legged Gull, Heydon Pig Farm, 19 January
I can see Wimpole Hall and the folly from my bedroom windows, so I didn't feel too guilty about driving up to have my daily lockdown exercise in the grounds of the hall on the 21st, particularly as there is a nice, newly laid concrete path to walk along there, thus allowing me to avoid all the mud. I was fortunate to encounter no fewer than five different species of goose near the lake. There were two Canada geese, two Egyptian geese, two (presumably feral) barnacle geese and, best of all, the two Russian white-fronted geese that I saw here before Christmas. I couldn't find the tundra bean goose that I had seen then, but it could have been hiding amongst the hundreds of greylag geese (the fifth species) that were also there. Several mandarin ducks were also on the lake.
Barnacle Geese, Wimpole Hall, 21 January
Russian White-fronted Goose, Wimpole Hall, 21 January
The first significant snow for two years in Royston fell on the evening of the 24th and stayed for around 36 hours, giving me the opportunity on the 25th to do both landscape and wildlife photography. A female sparrowhawk, which flew towards me and then perched on a pile of dead branches near the Wicker Hall reservoir gave me a very rare opportunity to photograph this species, which I usually see either soaring high above my head or flying rapidly away from me! More heavy rain washed the snow away and made walking on the muddy fields treacherous, particularly those with steep slopes. There was very little to report towards the end of the month, although I did find a male stonechat on the golf course (which, of course, was closed during lockdown) near the bottom of Church Hill, on the 28th.
Female Sparrowhawk, Royston, 25 January
Common Buzzard in Flight, Therfield Heath, 28 January
Stonechat, Therfield Heath, 28 January
Following the wettest December that I have recorded since I started keeping records in 1992, this was the second wettest January.
Paddyfield pipit (Anthus rufulus)
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