This page is dedicated to my wildlife sightings in the Royston area, for the current year 2012. I try to update the page with my latest news every few days.....where possible!

 

 

To find out what birds have been seen recently in the county of Hertfordshire, visit the Herts Bird Club website. What follows relates to my own "local patch" wildlife sightings for 2012.

  January 2012

 I went onto The Heath at the earliest opportunity (3 January) to record the over-wintering "rarities" for my various new year-lists and was lucky enough to find the Great Grey Shrike and a (juvenile) Hen Harrier although, on an extremely windy afternoon, no Short-eared Owls could be tracked down. A flock of over 100 Golden Plover was at Greys Farm and two coveys of Grey Partridge were seen. Short-eared Owls suffered in the very windy weather at the start of the year (they are unable to hunt in strong winds) and sadly one of our local birds succombed during this period. One of the survivors was seen to fly over the A10 near the hospital at dusk on the 9th and on the following day a big flock (53) of Corn Buntings was noted in a hedgerow near the reservoir on The Heath. The Great Grey Shrike was showing well and I even managed to take one or two "record photographs" of it...at last! The shrike was still present on the 12th, but that was the last time I saw it. Four Tree Sparrows were at Hatchpen Farm on the 17th (my highest count of the winter so far) and five Corn Buntings were also seen there: a meagre total compared with the 150+ reported by Alan Beale on The Heath the previous day! A ringtail Hen Harrier was still at Greys Farm, where 190 Linnets were also counted. Good numbers of Grey Partridges were seen from the paths between Reed End and Therfield Heath and a flock of 41 Golden Plover was also noted. A walk on the 23rd produced a few surprises, none more so than the sight of four Ravens "cronking" loudly and performing acrobatics over The Heath. They eventually split into pairs and flew away: this was my first local Raven sighting since 2010. A Treecreeper seen in the belt of trees that runs across the top of The Heath was another "first" for that area: less surprising were a Nuthatch at Fox Covert and a Hen Harrier. Seen initially at Greys Farm,  this bird or another "ringtail" was later seen at Mardleybury Farm and was again seen at Greys on the 30th, when it put up a flock of 74 Lapwing.