Sunday 19th November - The finches keep coming

Last weekend I made a visit to the coast on Sunday, Selsey & Medmerry. All very pleasant but little on offer on the avian front, just a single Great Northern Diver and an early flyover  Redpoll, which itself is a little unusual for Selsey although rather more common inland, with just single figures of Brent Goose and a trickle of Meadow Pipits moving through, it was 'dead quiet'. I then visited Medmerry from Easton Lane , which was also dead quiet with a few Skylark, Reed Bunting  Yellowhammer, Stonechat in the scrub on the way down to the Stilt pools and a single Dartford Warbler dashing into the gorse. The pools held a few Duck including  Pintail, Teal, Gadwall, the only waders were Lapwing and a Sparrowhawk passed over with 2 Kestrel in the vicinity.

Contrast to this Saturday at home, when again before 10am before the domestic jobs started and then the rain set in for the day, it was quite birdy with the following highlights from a decent list seen from the patio, with excitingly another Hawfinch in flight.

Peregrine 1
Fieldfares 136
Redwing 21
Brambling c 25
Goldfinch 70+
Blackbird 6
Woodpigeon 975
Hawfinch 1w @ 8.25am
Grey Wagtail
Siskin 18+
Marsh Tit 2

This morning, it was cold but very still with a bit of frost that soon cleared with the rather odd cloud cover eventually clearing to give a bright sunny afternoon. I went for a walk from the house, down through the farms to the woodland, which was just very muddy. Woodpigeons were everywhere , but apart from an early Sparrowhawk and some  40+ Siskins in a stand of Alders and a couple of Bullfinch, there was really little else on the walk until I started the return from the Furnace Pond and as I was skirting  along the edge of the arable field I heard a distinctive chip call of a Hawfinch and saw one land at the top of an Oak, although viewing through the trees was rather limited. It flew off , then further along the same path another alighted , then 2 more together, so 4 in total. Views were still rather limited but  exciting to see another 4. Local Rarities always spice up a morning. Back at home there is still a good Goldfinch flock c70 birds in the Alders , a few Siskin with them, and the odd Brambling. The thrushes seem to have dispersed today, although not surprising as the previously berry-laden hollies have been almost stripped bare.

view down the lane towards Woolbeding

Small batch of Woodpigeons at first light

a bit of frost on the ground

Hawfinch

Nuthatch

Marsh Tit