Started at Ampleforth where we had the Hawfinch that was reported about 3 weeks ago. It showed briefly but at close range on the ground feeding on Yew seeds that had dropped to the ground (by the look of it). It was nice to meet up with Jonathan Pomroy, a local wildlife and landscape artist (and birder who found the bird originally in mid-January). Thank you to Jonathan for letting me use a couple of his pictures from today (reproduced with permission below). Check out Jonathan's blog for more photos of the bird (here), and incredible painting of the bird (here). He'd also had a Waxwing there, but we didn't see that.
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Hawfinch © Jonathan Pomroy 2013 - this was the view I got of it on the deck.
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Hawfinch © Jonathan Pomroy 2013 - this was the view Jonathan got just before we got there!
A really hard bird to connect with in the York area nowadays after they were seemingly much easier in the 1980s/1990s so I was really pleased to get this 'York Area Tick'!
We spent the rest of the day driving round the hills and had at least 40 Common Buzzard, 5+ Sparrowhawk and the main target, Goshawk. Another good result! We also had two distant corvids flying away from us (that we both independently thought were Buzzards at first) that were probably Raven, though we weren't certain, so they will frustratingly remain unidentified.
We headed back to York where a brief stop at Strensall for some Waxwing that had been reported proved very interesting, with 50 birds present, occasionally dropping down to a Cotoneaster bush. One of the birds (at least the one that showed better than the rest) was colour-ringed. I'm looking forward to finding out some information about this bird! Some images of this bird, and a couple of non-ringed birds below.
Waxwing © Andy Walker 2013
Waxwing © Andy Walker 2013
Waxwing © Andy Walker 2013
Waxwing © Andy Walker 2013
Waxwing © Andy Walker 2013
Waxwing © Andy Walker 2013
Waxwing © Andy Walker 2013
I would really like to see a Goshawk one day, and I still haven't seen a single Waxwing yet this Winter. At least I can read about them in other peoples blogs. From Findlay
ReplyDeleteHi Findlay, thanks for your comment. Hopefully you'll catch up with a Waxwing soon, probably when you least expect it!
DeleteGreat photo's of the Waxwings Andy. You beat me truly on numbers and photo's!!! and you saw a Goshawk!? Amazing!
ReplyDelete:)
Thanks Eve! Out of all the ones I've seen this winter this was the first time I've got 'proper' views!!
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