Hawfinches, Norton Sub Hamdon 9th February

Having seen that up to 22 hawfinches had recently been seen in the churchyard at Norton Sub Hamdon, we decided to visit.

They were not in the churchyard when we arrived, but knowing that these birds like to move around in search of food, we had a walk around the village. We found two blackcaps, four bullfinches, a great spotted woodpecker and hundreds of redwings, but sadly no hawfinches. However, as returned to the church, we found some hawfinches in the trees around the churchyard. A look through the scope revealed that there were 14 of them present, quite an incredible sight! Having spent all my life without seeing a hawfinch, I have now seen about 22 of them in just over one month!

Hilfield- 2-3 January

There was a very exciting spectacle at Hifield today, with approximately 120 bramblings ialong with a similar number of chaffinches. A lot of these birds landed in the garden, albeit briefly, before continuing to feed in the plowed fields, but I did manage to get a couple of mediocre pictures.

There were some other good birds for Hilfield around, including a lesser black-backed gull and a black-headed gull with c.60 herring gulls, and three greenfinches were present. On top of that, a sparrowhawk flew over, getting mobbed by the rooks as it went.

Some of the bramblings at Hilfield, 3rd January 2013