Hawfinches

Just three days after returning from our birding trip to Mallorca we were on the road again. This time a couple of days in the Forest of Dean for a repeat of our Hawfest last year. Sadly the Hawfinches had decided to leave the feeding sites early and there were just a few birds present at the first site and at the second site just one calling  bird and nothing to be seen. A bit of a disappointment as we had a dual role, photographing the birds and recording any ringed birds. Last year we had a maximum count of 32 birds at one time, this year just 3 on the ground at a distance.The only ringed bird seen was a female which carried only a metal ring, no distinctive colour rings as far as I could see.

Light under the canopy was at a premium and cranking the iso up to get a shot invariably results in noisy pictures, nevertheless what I managed to record is below.

Big thank you to Jerry for allowing us to record his birds, sorry no data this year but it is still a privilege to be so close to such stunning birds.

 

The only bird carrying a ring.