Happy Hawfinch New Year!!

The Hawfinch irruption continues to dominate the birding scene both locally and nationally and hereon the blog! Firstly with one of the St Agnes birds being voted favourite image for the year...

My favourite from Whitcliffe in late December...

Plus the best from a couple of churchyards on New Years Day..

 Long may they continue to dominate the scene!! A quickfire tour of Polemere VP and route in between during the afternoon produced 55 species with nothing of note. Sparrowhawk seemed particularly evident, blitzing through small flocks at four locations and it's so easy to go through a day without seeing one!

Whitcliffe Common - Hawfinch!!

The year is coming to a close and I'd been keeping an eye on 'news' for some time now, hoping for some showy Hawfinches to emerge locally? After the St Agnes birds, dots in the distance or flyovers were not an option! And I have Ian Baggely to thank for tipping me off how well they were showing this week and then Dave Chapman for doing his intrepid stuff! I've had two short, freezing but pretty productive sessions there...

Here's a lucky moment on the Common when perched ad nauseum - giving us a 'you lookin at me' stare?

The highlight had to be drinking time!

But the poses in between were well worth savouring!

Just about all angles were covered!

But this short sequence just about captured how irresistable this charismatic bird can be!

You have to make the most of moments like this,  it may be years before they perform as well in the UK again!