Mostly not on the patch - February 23

Today I fancied a change. Richard B was due to arrive at 09.00 am and as I knew he hadn't ever seen an Avocet or a Hawfinch, I had both lined up for him.

First though, our garden elbowed its way in to the story when a male Siskin arrived on the feeder and stayed long enough for several photographs.

Siskin

Shortly after this shot was taken I returned to the kitchen to find a male Sparrowhawk perched on the fence. Annoyingly it took flight just as I pressed the shutter. Hopefully it didn't have bits of Siskin in its talons.

So to Upton Warren. I had been a little nervous that the overnight freeze might have persuaded the Avocets to move on, but fortunately there was one ice-free patch where 14 Avocets still remained.

Avocets

On the way to the flashes we had walked alongside the sailing lake where an Oystercatcher flew in to pose.

Oystercatcher

The field behind the flashes contained at least 110 Lapwings probing for worms. With little else to see I escorted Richard to the Moors Pool where he was suitably impressed by the number and variety of wildfowl on show.

Little Egret

Curlew

Pochard

Teal

The one bird I was hoping to see was the over-wintering Whooper Swan. I hadn't seen any reports of it on-line since 19 Feb, and I was expecting it to have gone. So a sleeping swan on one of the islands remained only an item of interest until it briefly woke up revealing it was indeed the Whooper Swan. It then went back to sleep, but for a while did at least show enough yellow on the bill to rule out Mute.

Whooper Swan

So with Richard thoroughly satisfied with his birding experience we returned for lunch. The afternoon brought a new possibility. A church at Studley had hosted 14 Hawfinches yesterday and the grounds were easily accessible for Lyn's wheelchair. So the three of us headed straight over there, and within 15 minutes of arrival we had all seen a beautiful male Hawfinch.

Hawfinch

The only slight disappointment is that the view we all got was clear, but rather brief. The bird flew from the top of a tall tree to the bushes where I took the photograph. Richard, wheeling Lyn, couldn't get to me in time to see it this time. We spent another 40 minutes there, during which I saw three Hawfinches, but the others missed out.

We did consider rounding the day off by trying to see the murmuration of Starlings in the centre of Redditch, but somehow we never made it.

Another time perhaps.