Spring has Sprung!
Check out 'What to look for in.....March' and to keep tabs on our arriving migrants go to '2025 Spring Migrant Tracker'
New species totals map for 2024
Do you still have some 2024 records to submit, or want to go somewhere new in 2025?
We now have a map showing where our birds were recorded in 2024. This map shows species totals for each 1km square in the county, taken from records submitted to the Herts Bird Club website.
The fully interactive map can be found here - please click on a 1km square to show the total number of species recorded
New feature : WHAT TO LOOK FOR IN....
A new website page is now available
accessible from the main menu on left hand side of the home page.
This page contains all the monthly 'What to Look for In...' articles, written by Herts Bird Club chairman Rupert Evershed, highlighting species to look out for in Hertfordshire each month.
February's installment is available now!
Redpolls
Following the Britsh Ornithologists' Union (BOU)’s decision to ‘lump’ Redpolls in line with the International Ornithological Commitee's decision, and in common with other record submission Apps , the following three species are no longer available in the Herts Bird Club website record submission, Species dropdown:
Lesser Redpoll
Common Redpoll
Arctic Redpoll
Instead please select Redpoll.
Gull ID Workshop
Gull ID Workshop Saturday 15 February 2025 from 12pm at Rye Meads and Amwell NR.
Go to Gull ID Workshop for more information.
Image : Great Black-backed Gull at Amwell NR © Stuart Fox
Pages
HNHS News
How to help Swifts – the 2026 Herts Bird Conference
The 2026 Hertfordshire Bird Conference attracted a full house of HNHS/Bird Club members and friends on Saturday 7 March to hear fascinating talks on Swift conservation, birds in urban greenspaces and the 'journey' of a bird record submitted through the Bird Club website.
Videos of all the main presentations can be found on the HNHS YouTube channel
Swifts are our fastest bird in level flight and famously only land when nesting. They otherwise feed, drink, sleep and mate on the wing.
North Hertfordshire exhibition extended by two weeks!
We are pleased to announce that the popular HNHS exhibition 'Wildlife - for the Record' will continue for an extra fortnight at North Hertfordshire Museum, Hitchin. The final day will now be Sunday 1 March.
The exhibition is the concluding event in celebrations to mark the Society's 150th anniversary. It features species and habitats that are special to the north of the county, and wildlife exhibits from the museum's store that are not normally on display.
Discovering Hertfordshire's 22 species of wild orchid
Orchids are one of the most glamorous and diverse plant groups on earth, with 28,000 species worldwide. However, only 51 are known in Britain and Ireland – and just 22 grow in Hertfordshire, according Co-county Flora Recorder, Ian Denholm.
Giving the 2026 Gerald Salisbury Memorial Lecture on 22 January he provided an overview of all the county's extant species and seven others that have disappeared in the past 60 years. These ranged from those like Pyramidal Orchid (Anacamptis pyramidalis) that is thriving in a warming climate to the exceptionally rare Military Orchid (Orchis militaris) that flowered on a Herts. gravel extraction site for two years before being destroyed in 2020.
A video of Prof. Denholm's lecture, written with fellow orchid expert Prof Richard Bateman, can be viewed on the HNHS YouTube site.