Herts Bird Club Bulletin, covering November and December 1998
Good weather for the ducks?
Weather summary for the period
The weather throughout the period has been influenced by westerly fronts bringing much rain and sometimes high winds but mostly reasonable temperatures.
Bird summary
An excellent Great Northern Diver graced Hilfield Park Reservoir but could be hard to locate on occasions, especially when it was feeding. After arriving on the 18th November, it disappeared on the 20th December and had been seen flying strongly around at altitude just before this. It was a surprise, therefore, to find what appears to be the same bird back eight days later, and it is still with us in mid-Jan.
Not only is Shag an infrequent visitor to Hertfordshire, but not many can have been caught and ringed before, as one was at Rye Meads in early November. Who got the ringing tick I wonder?
Perhaps three Bitterns were present and there was a Little Egret at Tring. I know it is an escape, but it is good to hear the Puna Ibis is still with us!
You will see that a large selection of wildfowl species feature this bulletin. Best of these was probably the female Ring-necked Duck which was seen at Tring for six days in November, though both species of wild swan and both White-fronted and Brent Geese were also good records. The regular Long-tailed Duck was seen in the Colne valley and four Red-crested Pochards together were nearby at Stocker's Lake.
Both ends of the falcon scale were represented with records of Merlin and Peregrine.
Good numbers of Golden Plovers were reported with one flock containing a 'Plover's Page'. Hilfield Park Reservoir held the monopoly on Med Gulls and there was a first-winter Little Gull seen near St Albans.
Passerines included both Rock and Water Pipits, a Black Redstart, a Stone chat, an exceedingly late singing Willow Warbler on 23rd November, two Firecrests, a single Crossbill and only one record of Hawfinch. This last report makes depressing reading, are we missing this species or is there a genuine decline? On a more up-beat note, the flock of 54 Tree Sparrows seen in late December is encouraging.
Of non-avian interest, Stuart Downhill mist-netted a Long-eared Bat at dusk on 28th November. Is this late for this species?
Jack Fearnside
Systematic bird sightings for Nov/Dec 1998