Local patch watching is a great way to put your finger on the pulse of your local birding area and see how its faring. You very soon build up a wealth of information of whats moving through the area; dates of arrivals/departures of any Summer or Winter visitors and trends too: i.e. whats missing locally, conversely what new additions are there to your local area. With this in mind, last weeks activities for the first week in March had those objectives in mind – and it paid off with some great local birds. This time of year is always Goshawk watching and they didn’t disappoint. With some fabulous views of a very large female , two juveniles sadly showing shotgun damage to their wings and a second year bird showing characteristic slight teardrops to its breast as the heavily streaked breast has now been moulted. Unfortunately we had no switchback displays but all birds gave great views.It was also great to see a high number of Buzzards soaring around their mewing calls being very distinctive. As we were watching the Goshawks, a deep ‘KRONK’ call echoed down the valley: Raven !!! This is now our 4th sighting of Raven locally; great to see them gaining a foothold in the local area. We also had some visits to Dalby during the week, parking at the visitor centre and had excellent views of Treecreeper.We had also learnt of a large Brambling flock up at Adderstone Rigg in Dalby so on Tuesday last week -3rd March, Alf and I set off for an explore of the area- little knowing the our search would culminate in a very special sighting!!! We found the Brambling flock quite easily and we were surprised to see as many as 150-200 birds all swirling about in and around the Beech trees. As I was watching the Brambling, Alf got onto a bird that had flown up with a Brambling and to our utter amazement it was a single Hawfinch; there were a few expletives of shock and awe. Hawfinch after 15 years. I missed the 17/18 invasion as I was working in the Gulf at the time – but read with envy, accounts of Hawfinch turning up all over the UK in large flocks. Next day we looked for the bird again but no sign …. little did I know there was going to be another twist in the Hawfinch saga at weekend!!! As the week wore on, we had further good luck with a very nice Peregrine ‘fly through’ on Pexton Bank and to top it all whilst watching Goshawks on Friday morning a high pitched pi-pi-pi -pi-pi came from the trees bordering the stream- No it can’t be and again so clear then again; Lesser Spotted Woodpecker !!!!! What a bird to end the week on!!!!
