I took a short drive to Hogback Wood, Beaconsfield late afternoon hoping to see Firecrest that Wally Smith had found last week. After a few wrong turns I retraced my steps to where I had entered the wood, checked my directions and soon realised that the directions were from a different starting point the other side of the woods. I soon found the rear garden gate with the memorial plaque dedicated to 'John & Joyce Peck' and listened carefully, it was evident that there were Goldcrests present as they could be heard quite easily above the constant Blue & Great Tit calls. A few Jays could be heard calling in the wood, a Common Buzzard drifted over the tree tops shortly followed by a Goldfinch flock of about 20+ birds but there was no sign of the Firecrest. I decided to try a few Goldcrest calls and attracted a rather inquisitive Goldcrest who sat and looked at me for about 10 seconds before disappearing back in the Holly bush it came from, I continued with a bit of pishing and imitation crest calls and suddenly saw something move low down in the Holly by the back gate. It was very dark at the bottom of the bush and very difficult to see what was in it, again I saw movement but this time there were two small birds rather than one but I still couldn't make out what they were. I could then hear the contact calls of not one but two Firecrest that were obviously flitting around the bottom of the Holly bush.
I continued my attempts at trying to get a view and after a wait of about 20 minutes a male Firecrest pooped up from the Holly bush in full view, it remained sat on a holly branch allowing me to get some great views before flying round the back of the bush and out of view. I waited to see if it would appear again but it never did, remaining on the garden side of the bushes and out of sight. The light soon started to fade and with little chance of seeing them again I left them to it.
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