Saturday 18 November 2017

The UK is currently experience a massive influx of Hawfinches from the continent. This is a very rare bird in Ceredigion but given the sheer numbers turning up elsewhere I've been convinced there must be the odd one tucked away in the county somewhere. So having found out about a row of Hornbeam trees (fav Hawfinch food) at Wenallt I headed up there today. The trees are easy to find (SN679713) and can be accessed by public right of way. I spent about 15 mins scanning the trees through bins with no luck so got a bit closer and walked slowly alongside them peering into the branches looking for movement. About halfway along the row a single, calling Hawfinch shot out of the canopy, flew across the river and landed in a tree top. Its probably worth having a look for this bird as its obviously found itself a food source and will probably hang around for a while. There may even be others present.