January-February 2018.
With the nationwide (continent-wide!?) Hawfinch influx of Autumn/Winter 2017, it seemed a little odd that they had seemingly evaded south Essex. Single sightings from three sites involving six birds in October/November gave a glimmer of hope and there had to be more out there... The discovery of three at Pound Wood in December confirmed this, however they gave myself and other locals the run around, with sporadic sightings of an unreliable single bird. On my fifth attempt at seeing the Pound Wood birds, despite seeing the now-regular Nuthatch on most visits, a scarce south Essex bird, I was successful and stumbled on a group of five birds on 13th January, confirming my suspicions that there was more than just the one bird still present. This proved to be a reliable pre-roost area for them, and a mini-twitch on 14th produced seven birds, allowing all of the local birders to catch up with them. Since then I have seen them on every subsequent visit, most recently four still present on 16th February. Very impressive beasts! A male Bullfinch in the same area on 16th Jan was also a nice record.
Happy birding,
Max.
With the nationwide (continent-wide!?) Hawfinch influx of Autumn/Winter 2017, it seemed a little odd that they had seemingly evaded south Essex. Single sightings from three sites involving six birds in October/November gave a glimmer of hope and there had to be more out there... The discovery of three at Pound Wood in December confirmed this, however they gave myself and other locals the run around, with sporadic sightings of an unreliable single bird. On my fifth attempt at seeing the Pound Wood birds, despite seeing the now-regular Nuthatch on most visits, a scarce south Essex bird, I was successful and stumbled on a group of five birds on 13th January, confirming my suspicions that there was more than just the one bird still present. This proved to be a reliable pre-roost area for them, and a mini-twitch on 14th produced seven birds, allowing all of the local birders to catch up with them. Since then I have seen them on every subsequent visit, most recently four still present on 16th February. Very impressive beasts! A male Bullfinch in the same area on 16th Jan was also a nice record.
Happy birding,
Max.
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