Jim's Birding: Hawfinch Invasion

October and November will go down in history as being the largest invasion of Hawfinches ever recorded in the UK. The birds are thought to have originated from central Europe where their food supply of Hornbeam and other seeds have failed.

I had recently been to Steps Hill (24th October) and was fortunate to see 8 Hawfinches fly over. This was however small beer compared to the 90+ seen on one or two days. So with my daughter Katherine visiting for half term, we both decided to try and get to Steps Hill close to dawn. We actually arrived at 6:45am and found Dick Seekins in position but he had drawn a blank up until then. We stayed with Dick for some time and eventually heard one fly overhead but come not see it. We also had one or two Brambling in flight. Dick left and we were joined by Francis Buckle but we did not manage any further sightings in what was a fairly foggy morning.

Katherine and I moved on to College Lake for an hour or so and picked up most of the common ducks including Shoveler, Wigeon, Teal, Gadwall, Pochard, Tufted Duck, etc. Overhead we had a few Redpoll and in the distance a Linnet and Yellowhammer. We eventually decided to try for Hawfinch again but this time at Great Hampden where Warren Claydon had seen 24 feeding the previous day.

It was about a 20 minute drive to Great Hampden and we walked past the impressive "Great Hampden House" and into a Kale field where a footpath conveniently crossed it. A few small group had been left in the field and it was in one of these that Warren had seen the birds the day before. Before we had got the the first group (a copse of mainly Oak) Katherine caught sight of one or two Hawfinches feeding in a group of trees that was further away and one landed on a tall tree in the copse in front of us. We eventually moved through the copse to emerge on the footpath on the far side and got good scope views of the Hornbeam where the birds were feeding. We scanned the whole tree and counted about 7. Then a group of 16 birds flew across our field of view, followed a short while on a group of 6 and then 11. Then the original 7 birds flew out of the tree but there were in fact 9, making a total 42 Hawfinches.

A amazing result and many thanks to Warren for putting out details on where the birds were feeding the previous day. Later that afternoon John Edwards and Graham Smith managed to see 36 in the same area.