Wyre....

1/1/11
Wyre Forest

after paying only 2 visit to the forest last year, and missing out on every!!!! decent summer bird, i have planned to visit a few times over the year to 'mop' up those missed species.

and what a way to start the year (and the decade non the less) with a nice few hours standing in the middle of the forest at a clearing looking for a certain bird.

we parked in at the dry mill lane car park where we met the photographer Bob Heart, we walked up the railway line with him picking out MARSH TIT and GOLCREST for the masses of common birds, BULLFINCH, TREECREEPER and NUTHATCH were noted before we reached where we had all come to walk, we viewed the feeders but there was little more of interest than what had already been seen, although a REED BUNTING dropped on, i looked north towards the bridge and i knew i had the birds i was looking for straight away.

2 HAWFINCH (lifer 213)

these birds very quickly dropped down into the trees and we waited, and waited, and waited, and waited, and eventually, 4 birds popped up, then dropped down and after another 15 mins the flock again popped up and a 5th bird had dropped in.

5 HAWFINCH, they remained skittish, mobile and elusive throughout the 3 1/2 hours we waited, only getting about 10 mins viewing time in all of that.

The light was terrible, the birds were quite far off most of the time, and they never really remained in one spot for to long, althought the birds in the video below were there for about 2 mins.

3 LESSER REPOLL dropped in trees briefly and a RAVERN cronked over.

MB