Sunday December 10

A few hours before dawn this morning it started snowing. There had been a little bit on Friday morning, which had not thawed, but this morning's was on a different scale. It is still snowing now, at 11.30am, and I popped out with my ruler to take some measurements. On our wooden garden table it is 15cms deep, and on the patio slabs, 10cms.

The Hawfinches seem to have disappeared, my last sighting being one which flew over our driveway on 3 December.

However, the bird feeding regime has been pretty successful, with 17 species in the garden yesterday including 10 Blackbirds, three Redwings, and three Chaffinches. A Wren hopped around the flower pots under the back window for a short while yesterday afternoon.

Redwing

Chaffinch

So this morning the garden looked like this:

I duly waded out and cleared patches of snow, put out more apples, sprinkled more seed, and retreated to see if anything new would turn up.

Redwing

Song Thrush

So, pretty much just the same birds. I could also see no evidence of a hard weather movement, but as the snow is largely confined to the Midlands and Wales, this isn't too surprising.

The neighbours have been busy though.

Update: One species which is surprisingly unusual in our garden is the Starling. But one found the fatballs at lunchtime.

Starling

An hour later I went into the kitchen to find that the apple tree was full of Fieldfares. At least 15 were peering down and they were soon getting stuck in, fighting with the local Blackbirds for supremacy.

Fieldfare

Fieldfare

A fantastic spectacle.

Finally, as the light faded, a Pied Wagtail appeared on the front garden feeder. Another unusual bird for the garden.

Pied Wagtail

The light was too poor for anything but a rather fuzzy record shot.

Saturday November 25

No dedicated birding done for the second day running, except that two trips to the paper shop produced three Hawfinches.

Yesterday's was slightly unsatisfactory. I saw what I suspected was a Hawfinch flying across the road into a tree, photographed the tree and found the head of a Hawfinch peering out at me. It quickly disappeared only to fly over my head and land in another tree before disappearing again.

This morning I had one flying away, before finding one in a tree above the paper shop. The sun was against me, but I got a satisfactory shot.

I then edged around the tree and looked back with the sun behind me, but it had gone. However, five minutes later what I presume was the same bird flew over giving the classic "tick.....tick" call. Ironically this is the first one this autumn I have heard making that call.

During the late morning I wandered around without seeing any, and also spent time in the garden pruning the buddleia. The only bird of note to fly over was a Grey Wagtail.

With more than a decade since the last influx, and perhaps 30 years further back to the one before, I am determined to enjoy this one to the full.

Sunday November 19

As my last post suggested, I have been on a bit of a mission lately.

Last Sunday Dave and I checked out the Field Maples opposite the bus-stop on Alders Drive on the grounds that in their last incursion (2005) the Hawfinches had favoured that area. We found nothing. Then on Wednesday my visit to the paper-shop on Costers Lane was enlivened by the discovery of a Hawfinch in Field Maples there. Sadly I didn't have my optics with me, and the bird had flown off by the time I returned.

Since then I have surprised the shop's proprietor by turning up regularly with binoculars and camera around my neck, and have also searched the trees along Alders Lane with Richard B, all to no avail.

This morning I was approaching the shop when three Hawfinches launched themselves from a Field Maple. One landed in a maple across the road and perched perfectly while I scrabbled to put my camera on. Then, disaster, it took off as I was taking aim and flew to a more distant tree, where it landed and I got my record shot.

Hawfinch

It looks like a female to me. Males are even more spectacular.

One other thing to mention is that, right on cue, the first Blackbird was seen picking the berries off our Rowen. The tree will be stripped bare in a fortnight.

Thursday November 9

Well it had to happen. A two-pointer (re Patchwork Challenge) at last. Predictably enough the excitement was provided by a Hawfinch, which flew over me as I was returning from the paper shop. With a newspaper in one hand and a plastic bottle of milk in the other, binoculars left at home, it was not the ideal of circumstances. One thing I did have going for me, though, was that it called. A thin two syllable "siier" which it repeated a couple of times as it bounded away to the south.

This sort of thing makes me reflect on the role of luck in birding. Had I not been stuck behind an old gentleman taking an age to buy copious amounts of lottery tickets, I would not have been in the right place at the right time, winning my own personal lottery.

Mind you, how many rarities must fly over when I'm somewhere else? Probably best not to think about it.

The next challenge is to find one perched in the trees around here, nibbling on seeds. They were quite easy to find here in the last invasion winter, 2005/2006, so there has to be a good chance.

That's put the mockers on it!

Wednesday November 1

I had taken the day off with the intention of going birding, but life intervened and instead I spent most of it taking my parents to a routine hospital appointment in Birmingham. Before that happened I managed an hour wandering around Ipsley Alders dreaming of Hawfinches flying over (they are everywhere this autumn).

None put in an appearance, but I did count 36 Fieldfares heading west, and also 19 Redwings. The woodland was very lively with dozens of tits, Goldcrests, and an impressive 17 Blackbirds. Meanwhile Goldfinches featured heavily in the more sparsely wooded parts, at least 50 with about 12 Siskins.

Some Goldfinches

Cut to late afternoon. I took Lyn to Castle Nurseries (just off patch) to buy a plant and some veggies. No need for the binoculars. Which meant I have been left sighing a lot this evening after I stood and watched a largish, dumpy, short-tailed passerine undulate its way north over the Castle Nurseries car-park. It almost had to be a Hawfinch, but I could see no plumage features at all, and it was silent. Other options included Lesser Spotted Woodpecker, which I don't think it was, and Woodlark, which I can't rule out but seems much less likely than Hawfinch.

I suppose you can't take your bins everywhere, but not having them can lead to frustrating moments like this.

Friday October 20

A dull, cloudy morning with a few light showers and a light westerly breeze.

Given that this is a Hawfinch-winter, and bearing in mind that the last one, 2005/2006, produced up to five through the winter including one visible from our garden, I clearly needed to go out looking for them.

So with my focus firmly on birds, the first beastie to appear was naturally a moth. In fact it was a moth I had never seen before, although with my limited moth list this is not a particular surprise.

Red-green Carpet

The moth in question fluttered past me as I entered the suburb of Winyates Green, and unexpectedly landed at the top of a fence. The light was terrible and the rain started to fall, but I managed to get an image of it, a Red-green Carpet Chloroclysta siterata. Quite a common moth I believe, but one of the few still on the wing in late autumn.

The mild weather also allowed me to see a Hornet, but as the sun refused to shine, I soon reverted to the original plan of looking for birds. The woodland at Ipsley Alders contained a couple of tit/crest flocks, but all the crests were Goldcrests (as ever), and the one phylloscopus warbler I chanced upon turned out to be a Chiffchaff.

As I emerged from the woodland I found several flocks of Redwings heading south, the total of birds was at least 44, and with them came eight Chaffinches, and three Fieldfares. The latter are in bold type because they were a patch year-tick as I had failed to see any last winter.

So no Hawfinches, but I remain optimistic.

Friday October 13

My enthusiasm for doing this blog seems to be trickling down the plug-hole. Until today I had made no effort beyond keeping the feeding station in the garden topped up, and have been rewarded by regular visits of the usual species including up to 10 House Sparrows. One or two Chiffchaffs during September almost convinced me to set finger to lap-top (modern version of pen to paper), but I wasn't  so moved.

I did see a squashed Hedgehog along Alders Drive about three weeks ago, which at least means that they still existed up until this unfortunate individual's false move. They used to be so common here that we would get up to two live ones in the garden. Those days are now a distant memory.

So to today. It was rather breezy and mild so I walked around Arrow Valley Lake where everything was much as I remembered it. So much so that I am struggling to find anything interesting in my notebook. A moderately large flock of Long-tailed Tits had about three Goldcrests in tow, but nothing better than that.

A single adult Herring Gull was the only "unusual" bird on the lake. I use the term unusual very loosely here.

Herring Gull

Maybe next time there will be some ducks (other than Mallards).