Yesterday, the Biggest Twitchers headed down south to Cambridgeshire. This was close to Ruth’s old stomping ground in the days when she worked at the RSPB’s Head Office in Sandy, and it seemed strange to see the familiar place names on the roadsigns as we drove along the A14 in lashing rain. Not good conditions for birding though this wasn’t really on the agenda. Alan was helping out at an optics demo at Sneezums in Bury St Edmunds, and Ruth was catching up with a good friend, Debbie, for some retail therapy in Cambridge. Looking out the car window at the flat, intensively farmed fields, it was very different to the mountainous landscape that is home in North Wales. Not that there aren’t birds to be found down here. As the ‘Brassica Capital’ of the UK, it does have more than its fair share of Wood Pigeons. But if you look closely in the right place at the right time, and you may be lucky enough to see a Grey Partridge in the fields. In the days when we kept a year list competitively rather than collaboratively, this was a bird that Ruth birding down south always found easier to tick than Alan birding up north. Usually you'd just see a darkish bird in a field, but seen close to, this bird is far from grey and boring, its plumage may be subtle but it's a handsome bird.In 2008, Grey Partridge looked like being a bird that we wouldn’t connect with at all during our brief visits back to the UK in between longer stretches abroad in Africa and the Americas. In fact, it wasn’t until a chilly June morning in Estonia, that we finally caught up with the bird, pecking around on a frosty field. That’s one of the joys of birding in Estonia for British Birders. It’s the chance to step back in time and enjoy farmland birds such as Grey Partridge and Corncrake in abundance, the way they used to be here in the UK. Yes, you’ve guessed it, Estonia’s another country we’d like to go back to and bird again, though perhaps at a more leisurely pace this time!We're giving a new talk on The Biggest Twitch at Conwy RSPB on Friday 11th December at 7pm, where we'll also be signing and selling our original Biggest Twitch 2010 calendars. Tickets for the talk are available from RSPB Conwy. Rush down to the Reserve's Christmas Fair on Sunday 29th November and buy them from us in person, or telephone the Reserve any day on 01492 584091