Lovely sunny morning so tool the mutt for a long stroll around the park.
Once again the highlight was the hawfinches, with at least 5 present around the Old Hall area. Views were simply stunning in the warm sunlight and - best of all - one of the males spent long periods singing. Unsurprisingly I’ve never heard hawfinch song before, and it’s hardly ear-catching: kind of a less fluty shorter version of goldfinch. Nice to show Dave the ranger and a few passers-by a singing bird too.
The sun continued to shine and the woods were vibrant with bird song. Woodpeckers drummed, song thrushes and great tits piped cheerily. Lovely.
On the mere, an impressive 9 goosander were present; an unimaginable count just a few years ago. The spit held around 40 lapwings, still flocking for the winter, but there were signs of spring in an oystercatcher and the noise emanating from the heronry.
A stroll over to DHM was largely uneventful until 60 or so pink-footed geese headed over westward, no doubt headed from Norfolk to Lancashire. A pair of ravens were the only other birds of note. Neumann’s was partly frozen so held unspectacular numbers of wildfowl, but half a dozen shelduck were busy chasing each other around and green woodpeckers yaffled in the sunshine.
All in all a very pleasant morning, followed by a family afternoon at Chester Zoo where a calling rhinoceros hornbill turned my head towards the jungles of Asia (again). It’s been too long.
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