Herts Bird Club

New for 2018 - Herts Christmas Birdhunt: how many species can we collectively find & record in Hertfordshire between 25th and 31st December? Note this is not an individual birdrace.

No rules other than all birds must be seen in Hertfordshire from 25th December to 31st December and please send all records to the website - Record Submission - so we can post updates throughout the period.

The list below shows the 126 species recorded in Hertfordshire during the same period over the past 5 years (2013 - 2017) with a high of 111 in 2014 and a low of 103 in 2017.

Hertsmere Borough Council have released a public consultation document covering a number of potential sites for housing and employment. One of the sites 'H2' is a proposed 'garden village' at Tyttenhanger covering a large area either side of Coursers Road and incorporating Tyttenhanger Farm and New Plantation Wood.

The full plan can be accessed at Local Plan Hertsmere by downloading the pdf document 'final version of our sites document'. Page 10 shows a map highlighting the various sites proposed for development including 'H2' at Tyttenhanger which is explained in more detail on pages 146-149. This development would undoubtedly impact negatively on the wildlife at Tyttenhanger, including, of course, the local Tree Sparrow population which is the last remaining colony in Hertfordshire and one of the last in the whole of the south east of England.

The proposals are open for public consultation until midnight on 20 December 2018. To comment on the proposals you can post them online by creating a log in at Consultation Portal where others can view your comments and you can also view comments by others, or you can email your comments directly to .

Local birders have opened a new twitter account @SaveTyttGP #savetyttenhanger where you can view the latest news and developments.

Two new national surveys are being launched:

English Winter Bird Survey December 2018 to March 2019 

Aims to evaluate how food resources in winter affect birds in lowland farming. The structure and methodology of the survey closely follows that of the Breeding Bird Survey (BBS) and is to be conducted in the same squares.

Urban Nesting Gulls 2019

​​Final year of the Seabird Count 2015 - 2019 and a national census of urban nesting gulls. Are Herring or Lesser Black-backed Gulls nesting in a Herts town near you?

For further information and to find out how you can get involved in these two exciting new surveys go to the Surveys and projects page