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ZEISS DTI thermal imaging cameras. For more discoveries at night, and during the day.

UK Hawfinch occurence last weekend....? (1 Viewer)

I'm wondering if timing plays a part. Does anyone have any stats on 'usual' movement time for these birds?

The Organbi figures are amazing in that you could miss an odd one but not 100's so it would be interesting to see if they are a later migrant ie when the counters have gone home. More November perhaps.

I know that the Black Kites were on average earlier this year - the peak day is usually 4/5th August and this year was July 29th...

EDIT - just checked 2015 (only other year with meaningful numbers) and the peak was the end 1/3 of October, with about half in that time (from the 20th onwards)...
 
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In keeping with the current trend, albeit their occurence is not unknown in my neck of the woods, my first conclusive bird of the year was a flyover on Sunday 15th going East...with this mornings sightings at 9.25am going South, and 9.41am going North.East, thus old Coccothraustes is certainly on the move. It will be interesting to see if these UK sightings are just purely seasonally transient, or convert to good numbers overwintering....we shall see.
 
An invasion could be good news for the British breeding population, as I have understood this tends to be boosted by European immigrants (of course I can't find a source for that on-line...)
That would be good news, except I've not heard of any up this end of the country yet :-C
 
I started a quick scan of other sights in France

Peuch Debon is one place with some history of this species although data isn't 100% complete.

This year they have also passed 2,000 birds witht he peak in the first week of October (although still counting). Previous high counts have always been 2nd and 3rd decades in October.

Point D'Aguillon - very hit and miss but only one year with any numbers of any note and the peak week was beginning of November...

It does point to any early movement in this species - haven't compared against other birds yet. Interesting.

Still waiting to bag some round here. Usually get a few overwintering.
 
If it's due to a shortage of their usual food sources, I suppose it's too much to hope that these notoriously fussy eaters may get the hint and realise that they are finches with massive bills that could eat pretty much anything if they were so inclined.
 
If it's due to a shortage of their usual food sources, I suppose it's too much to hope that these notoriously fussy eaters may get the hint and realise that they are finches with massive bills that could eat pretty much anything if they were so inclined.

If I remember rightly, they're listed as eating seeds of around 90 different species of trees and shrubs :t:

It's just that some years, everything has a duff crop - it doesn't happen often but it can. One cause is an abnormal late spring frost, just one cold night can kill the flowers of most plants.
 
I suppose we'll never know, unless a few ringing returns can perhaps suggest a "crude" point of origin, I would have to assume rightly or wrongly that this food "driven" movement, is from a "given area" within the cline, i.e. how far South, North or East...whence they've come?

FWIW...perhaps as support to Nutcrackers comment regarding "late frost", I note that in Mountfort's Hawfinch monograph....between June and December, Cultivated Cherry is one of the more regular and preferred crops during this period, and can be subject to extensive damage in late Spring.
 
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If I remember rightly, they're listed as eating seeds of around 90 different species of trees and shrubs :t:

It's just that some years, everything has a duff crop - it doesn't happen often but it can. One cause is an abnormal late spring frost, just one cold night can kill the flowers of most plants.
Could well be. There was a strong late frost (sometimes below –10 °C) in the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany (and who knows further afield). Apples suffered badly and it's a very bad year for Rowan. Hawthorn, sloe and Guelder Rose look OK. Come to think of it I haven't seen any maple seeds... a Hawfinch staple. Must look tomorrow!
 
I know our usual local wintering birds one had a ring on 2 winters back and was found to have come from the forest of dean

An interesting record! I imagine there are few Hawfinch returns from within the UK...not being the easiest bird to gain proximity to, and generally fairly scarce and local. I presume returns on the continent being greater?

Cheers
 
A single male on the bird table here for the last couple of weeks - which is not that unusual, but not heard of any big flocks locally. Round here they seem to favour beech and hornbeam.
 
That makes their particular nature even harder to understand.

It means that places with reduced woody plant diversity (Britain, and even more, Ireland) have fewer Hawfinches than places with higher woody plant diversity.

In Europe, woody plant diversity is highest in the Balkans, and Hawfinches are ridiculously common there, compared to what we are used to :t:
 
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