Its the first time I have been able to photograph Hawfinch, arguably Britain's most difficult finch to find. A friend had told me about a small group that had been seen and he had photographed in a vicarage garden, accross the border in Somerset. I am not normally someone who chases accross the county, let alone the country to find a bird but Hawfinches are a bird that I was keen to photograph so it was too much to resist really. When we arrived at the spot it was pretty easy to find them. Right next to the road there was a very mature old Yew tree and it was just minutes before we saw the birds feeding on Yew berries in the tree and right next to the road. I was struck by their feeding behaviour which was to my eyes, very similar to Waxwing but because Yew trees are coniferous, there was much more foliage to hide the feeding birds. But they seemed to be perching high in adjoining tall trees and then, whenever the need took them, they would fly in to the tree, en-masse to feed. At first we thought there were just perhaps 7 but it turned out when they were suddenly disturbed and they left the tree in two groups there was at least 15 but perhaps even 20. Somehow, birds always have an annoying knack of feeding on the "safe" side of a tree or bush so it was frustrating to know that the tree was, at times, full of Hawfinches but you could hardly see them let alone photograph them. As they moved from branch to branch, picking off the berries they gave momentary opportunities to get a picture. The shot above has been touched-up a little bit, distracting branches removed from the back ground. In the end I am left with a satisfying picture if not necessarily a great photo, the end product is a good record of the bird which I believe is a male.
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