Hawfinches in Exeter, Devon

Wednesday 10th January and I decided to head to Exwick Cemetery in Exeter to look for hawfinches which have been showing here for a couple of weeks following the eruption into the UK from The Continent last autumn. It was a bright and sunny but chilly day with little breeze and the train journey to Exeter went smoothly with views from the train of fulmars flying around the cliffs near Teignmouth and Herbert the Slavonian grebe off Cockwood on the River Exe.

I arrived at the cemetery just before 11am and wandering around I managed to find a pair of great spotted woodpeckers, goldcrests, greenfinch, chaffinch, long tailed tits and a male pheasent with a green woodpecker heard yaffling.

Eventually I managed to track down the hawfinches feeding in the tree tops at the top end of the cemetery, at least 3 birds but probably more as they were wary and mobile and difficult to keep track of amongst the branches of the trees. I watched them for around 90 minutes and at times had some great views of them as they fed on various seeds in the tree tops, very charismatic and distinctive looking birds and lovely to obseve here in Devon.

 Hawfinch - another "quality" record shot

Hawfinch

 Hawfinch

 Hawfinch

Hawfinch

Hawfinch

I walked back to Exeter St.Davids train station and caught the train to Dawlish Warren for a quick loook around, bumping into  Warren Watcher Lee near the train station who informed me that a long tailed duck was showing well at the mouth of the Exe and so I decided to head off there first. I eventually found the bird diving close offshore along with 3 great northern divers, a presumed immature male bird with pink markings on its bill.

Back at the main pond a female shoveler, a little grebe and 2 snipe were showing well but there was no sign of the recent Jack snipe although water levels were much higher than on my visit in December.

 Snipe

Shoveler

A quick look offshore from the lifeguard hut and a red throated diver was busily diving quite close in while further offshore great crested grebes were spread across the bay and a distant auk species was seen resting amongst the waves.

Heading back to Plymouth and the trains ran smoothly again and it had been a very enjoyable day out indeed.

A Trip to Germany and a Cornish Hawfinch

Despite having just returned from the Far East it was time to head off again to Heathrow Airport on December 2nd for a short break to Cologne in Germany courtesy of free flights with British Airways using our Avios points. I really just felt like spending a few quiet days at home but once we were on our way I soon got into the spirit of things and had a good time away. The drive up to Heathrow was uneventful with golden plover, lapwing, fieldfare and redwing seen in the fields by the A303 along the way in the continuing cold weather but there was no sign of any red kites (although I did see 2 birds on the drive back home to Plymouth on our return on December 6th).

Cologne was as lovely as always, the Christmas Markets were great and we ate and drank too much and spent a fortune but it was worth it. There were patches of snow on the ground and on rooftops when we arrived at Dusseldorf Airport but it soon disappeared in the light mizzle which was a shame. Not much in the way of wildlife was seen as expected on a short and city based break but I did see some birds including buzzard, pheasant, grey heron, starling and kestrel on our train journeys to and from Dusseldorf Airport and to and from Aachen, while in Cologne I saw sparrowhawk, Canada goose, common gull and cormorant amongst others. The highlight were the ring necked parakeets which noisily roosted in trees by the Christmas Market near Heumarkt every night, there must have been around 50 birds present with a lot of bird poop underneath the trees on the pavement. Each morning they noisily congregated in trees near our hotel, making flying sorties overhead in small noisy groups before dispersing which was great to watch (and hear) - love them or loathe them, they certainly caught the attention of people passing by.

 Aachen Cathedral Mosaic

 Aachen Cathedral Mosaic

 Aachen Cathedral Mosaic

Aachen Cathedral Mosaic

With 2 very busy days at work on our return I really needed a proper wildlife fix on Sunday 10th December and so I headed off to Plymouth railway station to catch the train to Dawlish on a sunny but cold and blustery morning. I had been awake and out of bed early but dillied and dallied and missed the first train of the day at 08:40 which I soon regretted as on arrival at the station it was packed with travellers, trains were delayed and (stinky) Crosscountry trains weren't running due to a strike. With my 10:09 train being increasingly delayed on the notice board I realised I would miss the connection at Newton Abbot to Dawlish and decided to abandon the trip -  I wasn't expecting to get my money back for the ticket but it was refunded without question which I was very pleased about. I wasn't sure what to do instead but with a hawfinch being reported the previous day at the China Fleet Club near Saltash I decided to head out there on the bus for a look around.

On arrival at the Club some birders were peering into the trees but there had been no sighting of the hawfinch. I was at least able to get a bit more information from them about where it had been seen the previous day and I left them to their search and walked over to the nearby putting green area for a look around where I did manage to get the briefest view of a hawfinch flying off between the trees - not the views I was hoping for but at least I had seen it, and only my second UK sighting of one.

I decided to walk on to the bird hide for a quick look as the tide was beginning to ebb with a plan to return to the putting green later for another look around. From the hide there was a nice selection of birds roosting on the saltmarsh - redshank, dunlin, curlew, black tailed godwit, lapwing and 7 avocets representing the waders, wigeon, shelduck and teal representing the ducks, lesser black backed and a great black backed gull amongst the herring and black headed gulls and a distant view of a nice glossy ibis roosting with little egrets on the river bank opposite the hide.

Glossy Ibis from the hide with Little Egrets (Honest!)

China Fleet Club Rainbow

Back to the putting green and there was no sign of the hawfinch and just as I was about to give up and go home I had a good flight view of one whizzing over the tree tops. It briefly landed in a tree before disappearing from sight but I was very pleased to get a better view. I decided to stay for a bit longer and I had a few more flight views as I walked around the area which were good but frustrating but eventually I found it feeding in trees with greenfinches, chaffinches and goldfinches where I managed to get some very good views despite the fading light - a very nice bird to see in what has been a bit of a hawfinch influx this autumn - and there may well have been more than one bird present.

 Hawfinch - record shot

Hawfinch - record shot

Hawfinch at China Fleet Club - courtesy of @ChrisBuckland6 Twitter

Other birds seen were goldcrest, 2 jays, a buzzard, long tailed tits, a little grebe with a female tufted duck on the lake with mallard and moorhen, a chiffchaff, a male bullfinch, redwings, song thrushes, blackbirds, robins and 3 mistle thrush.

And so not a bad day out despite the bumpy start.

Hawfinch in Germany

Our annual pilgrimage to the Christmas markets in Germany began with a drive to Heathrow Airport on Saturday 29th November. From the car I managed to see a red kite near Stonehenge, a covey of around 10 red legged partridge feeding in a field close to the road and 2 roe deer. Unfortunately I also saw the usual dead mammals (fox, badger, rabbit) and dead pheasents along the side of the road.

Arriving in Hamburg and it was very cold and grey but at least it was dry and it stayed that way for most of the trip. The Christmas markets were very good and as usual we ate and drank far too much. Best bird in Hamburg was a grey wagtail around the hotel buildings one morning. Coot, mallard, tufted duck, common-, black headed- and herring gull, blackbird, house sparrow, cormorant and carrion crow were also seen around the city centre.

Common Gulls (1 with a leg ring), Hamburg



A day trip by train to nearby Celle and I saw lots of buzzards flying over the fields as we sped by, the few I saw close to the train were definitely common buzzards and not rough legged. Groups of roe deer were feeding in the fields and I had a brief and distant view of what looked like a great white egret feeding along a water filled ditch but I couldn't be sure. A walk around the park in Celle and I found the star birds of the trip, around 6 hawfinch feeding in the tree tops near the castle in the same area where I saw them on my trip 4 years ago. They were very flighty and mobile and kept high up in the trees but I had some nice views despite the very grey and dull light.

Hawfinch, Celle



Hawfinch, Celle



Hawfinch, Celle



Travelling by train to Berlin on December 3rd and I saw more buzzards and roe deer. I had a brief and distant view of a herd of around 50 large white swans spread out across a grassy field, presumably whooper, but I didn't get a view of any beak colour.

Berlin was very interesting and with a much better atmosphere than I felt on my trip in 2008. The Christmas markets were much improved too and again we ate and drank too much. There were lots of hooded crows around especially at dusk when groups were flying in to the small parks with jackdaws to roost in the tree tops. It was odd to see hooded crows in Berlin and carrion crows in Hamburg.The two cities are only around 300kms apart but there is obviously a line of demarcation somewhere between the 2 cities and the 2 species, a situation echoed in the UK with hooded crows in Scotland and carrion crows in England.

Hooded Crows, Berlin



A short toed treecreeper was seen creeping around the brick work of a ruined church in the city centre, looking most bizarre and eventually  being chased off by a great tit. A sparrowhawk was also seen flying low over trees at dusk, Berlin has quite a significant population of goshawks which can be quite confiding but it was definently a sparrowhawk that I saw due to its small size.

Black Headed Gull, Berlin



And so we had a great trip as usual, Germany is a really nice country to visit and the Christmas markets are always very fun and festive. I managed to see around 30 species of bird without even trying, not bad when visiting 2 of the largest cities in Germany on a non-birding holiday. We also managed to see our fifth and final Egyptian temple rescued from flooding by the construction of the Aswan Dam - the Kalabsha Gate. Unfortunately it is currently being poorly displayed in an enclosed space in a museum of surreal art but will be moved to a new wing of the Pergamon museum in the centre of Berlin in a few years time.

 Kalabsha Gate, Berlin

Nefertiti, Egyptian Museum, Berlin - a sneaky photo!



Amazing lobby of the Radisson Hotel, Berlin as seen from our room!