Trip reports

A birdwatching outing

Wednesday, 23 February 2011

7 of us met at Quarrymill car park on a dank grey misty morning. We quickly moved on to the old stable block at the Palace. Near here feeders had been put up under the trees, there was intense activity with great, blue and coal tits jostling for position also chaffinches. On a tree opposite we had our first tree creeper of the day, which we enjoyed watching at close range.
Our quest, however, was hawfinches. We made our way slowly to the crosstracks and along the Hornbeam Walk to the broken arch. No sign - some lovely snowdrops, still huge chunks of frozen snow and more tits. To the old cemetery and then on .... Val spotted 2 birds flying to a top of a tree. Yes, at last HAWFINCHES. Sam found another group about the same time. Although the rain was on, visibility poor and they were high in a tree, with the help of our scopes we watched around 20 of these lovely birds. They were incessantly feeding and occasionally displaying. What a pleasure to watch these delightful chunky birds with their huge bills, short tails, black bibs and delicate markings. From the same place we also saw a party of bullfinches, both song and mistle thrushes singing. It was good to compare these two and think maybe spring is on the way!
We made our way back to the cars for lunch, noting oystercatchers on the roof and more treecreepers. In the afternoon we had a short walk round by the pond. A few more hawfinches high up, and only mallard and reed bunting to add at the pond.
A successful day, despite the weather, especially as 2 of the party had never seen hawfinches before.