A dot or a tick

A morning of demands from clients hadn't put me in the best of moods especially after missing the opportunity of a local Hawfinch on Sunday so when I checked Birdguides and found a bird was still at Morpeth there was really no choice.

After getting out of the car and flushing a Dipper from the nearby stream I proceeded west as directed to find a group of six birders with bins trained on a bird overhead and just got focused as it disappeared into the trees. That was it I was informed and for the next hour we waited for a repeat. Fellow blogger The Liverbirder was present and Vee with lens trained in anticipation. Eventually a bird was spotted atop a tree one hundred yards away. Nobody had brought a scope and no matter how hard we looked a positive ID was impossible at the distance but we were sure it was...you know, jizz and all that.

So the spectacular view

and the massive enlargement which seems to suggest we were correct. A Hawfinch dot.

On leaving we met Alan T with youngsters in tow who managed a closer encounter than I. Then, after doing a bit of work it was off to the Carr where other than a Kestrel aligning with the moon and a particularly vocal Curlew, things were quiet especially when the sun sank in the west.

A nice bit of afterglow on the flooded landscape and another birding day draws to a close.