Nature in the Heart of England: Banburyshire: Hawfinches around the churchyards

Churchyards are turning out to be the place to look for Hawfinches at the moment. There have been regular sightings at Thenford churchyard near Middleton Cheney over the past couple of weeks; I managed a brief view of a flock of six flying over last Monday morning. This afternoon I had a look around the tiny churchyard at Edgcote near Wardington, another promising looking site with a couple of fruiting Yew trees. Quite a few Redwings and Greenfinches were siting in the top of several mature trees surrounding the churchyard, then suddenly a Hawfinch appeared and started calling, and I soon realised another was sat just below it. Not great views high up in the tree and partly hidden behind smaller branches, but I pointed my lens using the point focus setting and captured a record shot! Then they few off, not to be seen again (as, sadly, tends to be the case with them). What these two churchyards have in common are mature fruiting Yew trees and being located next to parkland estates with plenty of mature trees.

Hawfinch record shot - Edgcote Church

Edgcote Estate

I managed some better photos at Bicester Wetland Reserve in the morning, where an immature Water Rail showed very well early on right in front of the hide. Two Cetti's Warblers were singing, one in the small reedbed and one in the scrubby willows along the path towards the cattle field. A large flock of tits and goldcrests contained a Chiffchaff that was not giving the classic "Hweet" call but a "Swee-oo", I had heard this call a couple of weeks earlier but this time got a decent view and it was clearly a regular Chiffchaff. I heard a second Chiffchaff making the same call while I was out for a run near Wardington around midday today - it was fly-catching in a sheltered sunny spot. Again, my attention was drawn by the unusual call, then I spotted the bird (no binocs this time!). Much has been written about Chiffchaff calls, for example, in Birding Frontiers