Hawfinches at Bramfield Church

25th February 2016

Hawfinches have been seen at Bramfield Church for a number of years now, normally arriving in early January. I think it is fair to say that nobody really knows whether these are local birds or migrants from the continent. Then on the 30th January 2015 I photographed a bird with a yellow colour ring from which it was established that it was ringed near Chepstow, so on a sample of one suggesting that these may be migratory UK birds. However on the 25th February this year I also photographed a bird with a yellow colour ring, presumably the same bird, so where had it been between April 2015 and early January 2016?

I paid a few visits to the churchyard once the birds had arrived and while I usually saw a couple of birds, they were often distant, obscured or in bad light. But today two birds flew into a rather low Yew tree near the gate and perched up near the top in perfect light. How good is that?