Wednesday 2 February 2022

Great Tew & Balscote Quarry :: 29/30 January 2022

Mike Pollard had been birding locally in the week and reported a fab day out with highlights being six hawfinches at Great Tew. It was therefore out of the question we should travel far for our regular Saturday morning birding but instead should make for Great Tew and enjoy a rare opportunity of seeing these birds in Oxfordshire.

We arrived with grey skies overhead and parked up at the far end of New Street from the village – this is where Mike had apparently photographed the birds. Initially we walked along the main road towards Ledwell to view a large hornbeam tree seen from the car, a favourite of hawfinches - we encountered 7+ nuthatches, goldcrest, my first mistle thrush of the year (and then three more), but no sign of any hawfinches. We returned to the car, had a drink of coffee, and set off through Great Tew - we made our way down and back to the school where the birds had also been seen. Eventually a couple of birds flew by in silhouette against the grey sky, but we were pretty sure these were our target so walked back to the top of the road and into the church yard – we couldn't locate them - damn. We set off again but this time we saw a couple of birds in a distant tree on the church side of the street - a hawfinch! We made our way back to the church to see if we could get any closer views but as we approached, they took to the wing and away - to our surprise there were six and not only the two we'd been able to see from the road - I'd at least got record shots of a couple of them. We posted on the Banbury WhatsApp group that the birds were present.

We made our way back through the village again and could see the birds relocating from tree to tree and at one point we thought there may be a seventh bird with them. They were always wary and distant but we were happy to have found them. After about ten minutes of following them around they disappeared, and we bumped into Iain Brown coming the other way - the last time we'd seen them they were headed towards the church and so the three of us had another look there. No sign. We set off down the main road and met Mike Prentice coming the other way in his car - he parked at the top of the road and joined us as we walked past the school, the Falkland Arms, along Old Street and back up a lane to New Street. Iain fell behind to see what was at the top of Old Street - this was a mistake as when we started back up towards the church Mike spotted a hawfinch in a tree to our left. We all got our bins on it but by the time I raised my camera it was off - missed the shot but had better views.

Iain joined us again and we passed on the news he'd missed the bird, but his disappointment was short lived as we then spotted three hawfinches in the tree we'd seen them in originally - distant but visible. All happy now. They flew back down the village towards the school, and we thought about moving on but I spotted a light coloured bird in a yew tree beside the street and could see that it was a hawfinch through my bins. We made our way closer and amazingly the bird stayed put and allowed us close enough for some better photos.

Hawfinch
Hawfinch
Hawfinch
Hawfinch
Hawfinch
Hawfinch
Hawfinch
Hawfinch

Mike headed off to Abingdon for the Pallas's warbler and the ring-necked duck while Iain was headed home. Kev and I went up to the Over Norton feeding station but had nothing of note.

Sunday morning arrived, and I again met Kev and headed down to Abingdon to see if I could at last get a photo of the Pallas's but, despite a number of birders searching, there was no sighting of it at all. Still numbers of chiffchaff but nothing else unusual. We bumped into Gareth Blockley and had a chat - he was the finder of this bird and we asked him for details - like all such encounters he put it down to luck.

Goldcrest
Goldcrest

We headed home empty handed and after lunch I headed up to Balscote Quarry, my wife having gone to play a tennis league match against Cholsey. I settled in and spotted the usual suspects and a male brambling at the far end of the feeder area. Ray Smilie and his wife arrived and as we chatted, we could see that a female brambling had joined us. Wally Warburton also passed through and shared some of his recent sightings and photos. We spent a nice hour watching the birds pass through - other than the brambling, a flock of 43 goldfinch, 6 yellowhammer, 2 reed bunting, 11 greenfinch, 12 chaffinch and 17 redwing over were the best of the sightings.

Brambling
Brambling
Brambling

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