Thursday 3rd. January 2013

Firstly , a WARNING to anyone going down to Barming to see the Hawfinches reported on Adam's / East Malling , Ditton and Barming blog . Make sure that you know exactly where you are going , I can confirm that there are no guiding arrows above the trees favoured  by the birds .

I found that out this morning when I arrived at Church Lane , not a single arrow in sight . In the

gloom of an overcast day , I was welcomed by a male Kestrel on top of one of the power line posts , but not a lot else . The car park at the end was empty , so I started a search for the 'unmarked' trees .
I did eventually find them , but no sign of a Hawfinch , not even one of the Greenfinches that were seen flying with them . I decided to have a look at the Field Maples further along South Street , another place where Adam had found them feeding , but nothing seen . Down by the bridge , just before the river , a feeding flock turned out to be Chaffinches , and on my return back up the hill a couple of Greenfinches were sighted , but only accompanied by Starlings . I returned to the car park , still empty and scanned the still empty 'unmarked' trees . Another birder arrived , but seemed intent on finding the birds whilst seated in his car , along with a couple of dog walkers . After a short time , I was the only one left again and sat in the car to have a cup of coffee . Whilst drinking it , the Kestrel

seen earlier made a low pass over the car park and landed not 15 mtrs. away from the car , and posed nicely for a few seconds , before disappearing from sight again . Coffee finished , I got my gear together and headed into the graveyard , to get what little light there was behind me , in anticipation of loads of Hawfinch photographs . Unfortunately it didn't work out like that , as although a few Greenfinches flew into the 'unmarked' trees , no Hawfinches arrived . I noticed another birder arrive , but he just had a look from the car park and left after a short while . Another couple of birders pulled into the car park just after midday , and shortly afterwards , a check on on another two birds that had

just flown in , got the result I wanted , as one of them was a Hawfinch , silhouetted against a grey

sky . It stayed for a couple  minutes , so I was able to fire off several shots , but what I would have given for some sunshine . The bird flew off a couple of times but returned , this time on it's own . I

got a few more shots . Just as the other birder arrived , who I could now see was Mike H , no sooner had he got the bird in his binoculars , it took flight , heading past the church spire and into the distance . We were soon joined by another birder that we both recognised from Sevenoaks Reserve and Bough Beech , so it was becoming somewhat of a 'mini twitch' . Unfortunately , the Hawfinch sightings described were the only ones up to 1500 when I left . That was even with the attendance , twice , of 'The Arrow Man' himself , Adam , and Chris , who I met at the 'tree-laying' event early last year , or it might even be longer ago than that . The shame was that between 1300-1400 , the sky

lightened considerably , but the Hawfinch did not return , but the local Dunnock was making the most of it . Other interest seen during the wait included Sparrowhawk , Goldcrest , a flock of LTTits and two Song Thrushes that were competing against each other , jumping up from the power cables to snatch the Ivy berries hanging above them .
I feel very lucky to have seen and photographed the Hawfinch , and thank Adam very much for putting out the news .