[Alan Hobson]

Okay, I confess - due to a trip to India [work trip, not leisure, alas], this is not a bang up-to-date report from today or yesterday, but from a couple of weeks ago, just before I went. However, it was quite a special birding day so thought it was still worth posting now I'm back.

Two weekends ago I noticed from Birdline reports that there was an interesting curve of sightings of birds I wanted to see, ranging from Elevedon in Norfolk/Suffolk border area up to Choseley by the north Norfolk coast. So off I went on my voyage of discovery, wondering how successful I would be.

When I arrived at Elvedon there was no-one there at all, which did not, I felt, bode well for the presence of the Great Grey Shrike. However, when I set up the scope, there it was, showing extremely well, and looking terrific.

On I drove, to north of Thetford, where saw the Waxwings, just minutes before they flew away strongly to the south (hope they came back for the birders who arrived just after they went). However, no Bramblings there, despite being reported.

Would this be the first failure of the day? Well, no, as it turned out. I decided that as I was just down the road from Lyndford Arbortoreum [I'm sorry, Elizabeth, that's probably spelt wrong, I know] I would break my vow never to search for my bogey bird, the Hawfinch, ever again.

Those who read the Bogey Bird thread a few weeks ago may remember that I had never ever seen a Hawfinch despite repeated attempts at suposedly good sites. In fact, in one of the more basic of my bird books, Hawfinch remained one of only two birds in the entire book not ticked.

But, in a triumph of hope over experience, off I went, managing to find the entrance near the Paddock, and thus arriving quickly there. A couple were staring intently through a scope. Had they found the elusive Hawfinches, or was this a cruel illusion? ["That's a very nice lichen on that tree..."]. They had. Relief, joy.....and very good views of about five Hawfinches. At last!

More joy then appeared in the shape of three Bramblings - a year tick, and making up for their earlier non-appearance. Good views of them too.

However, just to show that it is very rare to find a perfect birding day, it then started to hail, very heavily. In the short distance between the Paddock and my car, I got more battered by hailstones than I ever have before, and ever want to be again....

I then had to decide whether to call it a day, or plough on to north Norfolk. Fortunately I chose the latter, and the weather qickly brightened. Up to Choseley [thanks Jason for the directions!], arrived, and..."Oh, the Lapland Buntings were here five minutes ago, but they've just flown off". Arrrghh......

However, a few minutes later some skilful person [not me, alas], relocated them. And I got terrific views of the Lapland Buntings, including two males in near-summer plumage. They looked fantastic. What was also rather good was that they were a lifer for me, which makes two in one day, plus two year ticks. And I have been hoping for an opportunity to see Lapland Buntings for years.

Everything I went for, I saw, with great views too. And the great bogey bird is vanquished.......

[pduxon]

nice one Alan, might go looking for that Shrike Saturday

[Jasonbirder]

Excellent stuff Alan - some good birds there!

[Ruby]

I don't reckon they exist at all - it's just a cruel hoax put about by more experienced birders to try to make me feel inadequate.

[scampo]

I'm with you Ray on the conspiracy theory - it must be a cruel hoax and they should know better! As interesting as it was to read, that report surely owes more to fiction than to fact - at least if it doesn't I'm just bl**dy jealous.

((-:

I saw my one and only ever hawfinch miles high in an oak tree about fifteen years ago in Clumber Park.

But, this Friday with luck, it'll be hawfinch and great grey shrike on a trip up to Derbyshire!

[Tero]

Well, at least they are not as rare as those birds we have at some bomb test site here. Some government official had the gall to say that the bombing is helping the birders by making the survivors even more rare...

[scampo]

Tero, here's a lovely little poem on that subject...

At the Bomb Testing Site


At noon in the desert a panting lizard
waited for history, its elbows tense,
watching the curve of a particular road
as if something might happen.

It was looking at something farther off
than people could see, an important scene
acted in stone for little selves
at the flute end of consequences.

There was just a continent without much on it
under a sky that never cared less.
Ready for a change, the elbows waited.
The hands gripped hard on the desert.

William Stafford (1966)

[rogerk]

If you wanted to, you could have gone up the road and round the corner for Goshawk and Woodlark at Mayday Farm.
We did the Great Grey Shrike a few weeks back and then Mayday Farm, picked up two Woodlarks, no Goshawk though :-(
We also did Hawfinch at Lynford, but we picked up a bonus Ferruginous Duck while we were there.
What a great part of the world to visit!
(Who needs Peru???????????)

[tom mckinney]

Good stuff Alan,

Must disagree with you on the title of this thread, Hawfinch do not exist, well not this year anyway!

[Alan Hobson]

Hi All,

Jason, Pete and Tom - thanks for the comments on the thread;

Ruby and Tom - that's exactly what I thought, until I saw them this time!

Steve [Scampo] - all fact, I assure you! So you can eliminate that theory to leave you with your other one, that you are jealous! However, if it's any consolation, I have been to Clumber Park twice and not seen a Hawfinch - that was one of the alleged good sites I was referring to in my thread.

By the way, while I'm replying to you, I thought your satirical spoof anecdote [in your thread on hidden identities] about Spongeface/holding bins the wrong way was a laugh-out-loud classic!

Alan

[scampo]

Alan - thanks, I was disappointed no one else commented and began to doubt my sense of the ridiculous or people's ability to recognise irony (which often fails to travel well through the ether).

Yes - it was jealousy all along. I'm trying to get to Cromford where I am told I stand a good chance of hawfinch.

[CJW]

If any of you "Hawfinch virgins" are coming to the Oop North Bash in June, I'll do my utmost to get you a couple!