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Birding Year List


chrisjpainter
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31 minutes ago, Yellow Bear said:

Redwings starting to appear on the holly here in NE Derbyshire.

Lots around Canterbury area yesterday, also on the holly berries, and rooting around in the leaf litter.

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On 27/01/2024 at 13:15, JDog said:

It would be fair to say that I have waited most of my life to see Waxwings. I saw 30+ on Rodborough Common near Stroud this afternoon. I am still shaking.

20240127_125916.jpg

Iv never seen one, do you think there a reason for them to turn up just now as opposed to a random happening

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I last saw them in the very harsh winter of 62/63 along with Bearded Tits (in north east Hampshire) - I have never seen either since:

Borrowed from the web:

Waxwings are referred to as irruptive, which means on occasion large numbers of the birds migrate beyond their typical range. Some years, hundreds of thousands of waxwings will land in the UK, often labelled as a 'waxwing winter'.

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Yes I feared I would never see or hear about another irruption of Waxwings in my lifetime so it was good to see them.

Five or six years ago there was an irruption of Hawfinches into the UK though on a much smaller scale than these Waxwings. Some birders on the Lincolnshire coast saw them coming off the sea. I spent days on that coast but never did see one. The Hawfinch remains top of my wanted list.

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12 hours ago, JDog said:

Yes I feared I would never see or hear about another irruption of Waxwings in my lifetime so it was good to see them.

Five or six years ago there was an irruption of Hawfinches into the UK though on a much smaller scale than these Waxwings. Some birders on the Lincolnshire coast saw them coming off the sea. I spent days on that coast but never did see one. The Hawfinch remains top of my wanted list.

Near daily sightings of 5-8 Hawfinch at Parkend, Forest of Dean (try the Cricket pitch, Crown Lane.)

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1 hour ago, twenty said:

Best time would appear to be 8am to 11am on recent reports, with the birds favouring the higher trees  around the cricket pitch.

Good luck.

Thanks. I will definitely get there this week. 

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I could never be considered to be a 'twitcher' or 'birder'. I am just interested in a lexicon of country matters, birds being just a part.

However having seen Waxwings ten days ago I was determined to look for a Hawfinch, my Holy Grail.

Twenty on this forum pinpointed where I should go in the Forest of Dean. Today was the day. 

Traffic! Where does it all come from? Getting round Cheltenham and Gloucester was a nightmare but two hours later we were there. One bloke was already there, he too had never seen one.

A steady stream of others arrived, some noisily clunking car doors, others chatting loudly. Don't they know how shy these birds can be?

After an hour watching I saw one, a female. I told myself it was a Chaffinch until a male confirmed the species. I was so excited. My wife continued to do scrabble on her phone.

So that was that. Fifty five years of wanting to see one was concluded in an hour.

Just before we left and no more than 20m from me six Hawfinches came down from the Yew trees to feed on the ground.

Thank you Twenty.

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23 minutes ago, JDog said:

I could never be considered to be a 'twitcher' or 'birder'. I am just interested in a lexicon of country matters, birds being just a part.

However having seen Waxwings ten days ago I was determined to look for a Hawfinch, my Holy Grail.

Twenty on this forum pinpointed where I should go in the Forest of Dean. Today was the day. 

Traffic! Where does it all come from? Getting round Cheltenham and Gloucester was a nightmare but two hours later we were there. One bloke was already there, he too had never seen one.

A steady stream of others arrived, some noisily clunking car doors, others chatting loudly. Don't they know how shy these birds can be?

After an hour watching I saw one, a female. I told myself it was a Chaffinch until a male confirmed the species. I was so excited. My wife continued to do scrabble on her phone.

So that was that. Fifty five years of wanting to see one was concluded in an hour.

Just before we left and no more than 20m from me six Hawfinches came down from the Yew trees to feed on the ground.

Thank you Twenty.

You're welcome, fine looking birds are they not, I used to be a member of a syndicate in the FOD and Hawfinch were always around and about.

All the best.

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On 07/02/2024 at 11:47, JDog said:

So that was that. Fifty five years of wanting to see one was concluded in an hour.

Just before we left and no more than 20m from me six Hawfinches came down from the Yew trees to feed on the ground.

Thank you Twenty.

Great news 👏 

I stopped yesterday when I was out shooting,  two large birds on a grazed field,  no binoculars and I couldn't get the rifle out, then someone posted a picture of the same birds later, they were Mistle Thrush,  I couldn't get over how big they were.

Lots of birds at my squirrel feeders and on my garden feeders.

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8 hours ago, Mice! said:

Great news 👏 

I stopped yesterday when I was out shooting,  two large birds on a grazed field,  no binoculars and I couldn't get the rifle out, then someone posted a picture of the same birds later, they were Mistle Thrush,  I couldn't get over how big they were.

Lots of birds at my squirrel feeders and on my garden feeders.

Had a flock of 20 Goldfinch visit the sunflower/nyger feeders yesterday

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16 minutes ago, twenty said:

A Swallow, House Martin and c40 Sand Martin at Frampton on Severn yesterday 

 

I stood in a ditch yesterday with a 25mph howling wind and a temperature of 4 degrees. Those birds wouldn't have found many insects in that.

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3 hours ago, JDog said:

I stood in a ditch yesterday with a 25mph howling wind and a temperature of 4 degrees. Those birds wouldn't have found many insects in that.

Must be finding insects above the various bodies of water in the Frampton area, loads of pools,lakes and canals in this vicinity.

Another Swallow reported from the FOD yesterday too.

 

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