Brilliant birding in the rain!
It’s not often that Ruth is first out of bed to go birding but today was one of those rare occasions! Alan had promised to help her catch up with Lesser Spotted Woodpecker which she’d missed recently while stuck in the office, and Ruth thought we might still be on a roll after our good fortune with the Lesser Kestrel on Sunday. She was right! As the light drizzle increased into more ‘organised rain’ as the weather forecasters call it, we began to wonder whether our luck would hold as we got increasingly wet. But then we heard it, a light drum roll somewhere in the vicinity but hard to pinpoint, the rain was so noisy. But definitely a Lesser Spot, a light rapid knock on wood, not the noisy staccato attack of a Great Spotted Woodpecker. We heard it again, closer this time, and then again. A bird swooped into the top of a tree right above us and we focused our bins in tandem. Lesser Spotted Woodpecker performed right in full view just over our heads. Incredible! Holding our breath, we watched the bird work its way up the branch, and then it swooped across to the next tree, and then off into the depths of the woods. Phew, we could breathe out and relax. Now we realised just how soaked we were, but there’s no such thing as bad weather they say, only bad clothing. So we got back in the car to carry on birding, and headed up the Conwy Valley to Caerhun churchyard. Our reward for persistence was an easing in the rain. We quietly crept into the churchyard and stood still and listened. At first, there was silence. Then we picked out a metallic 'ticking' as a Hawfinch flew in and landed close by. We enjoyed a wonderful view of this bull-necked, heavy-billed finch, when to our amazement, more Hawfinches flew in to join the first. The yew trees were filled with excited ticking as no fewer then 13 Hawfinches crowded into the trees all around us, even coming closer as we watched! It was amazing to have these birds so close and so noisy, there was obviously a lot of social interaction going on within the flock. Chasing, flirting and posturing seemed to be the order of the day, and we just soaked up the views.There was just time for one more birding stop before we headed home to do some work. We scanned across the fields and a distant raptor caught our eye: Red Kite. This glorious bird had obviously decided it was now fine enough to go out hunting and it cruised right over our heads. What a fantastic end to our damp morning’s outing!If you’d like to join The Biggest Twitch for some wonderful birding, just drop us an email on info@thebiggesttwitch.com and you too could enjoy a fantastic day out seeing great birds!