Rowan Wakefield

This autumn,  there has been lots of sightings of hawfinches, a large but uncommon finch.  They are actually more closely related to grosbeaks.  There are only 1000 breeding pairs in the UK.  They are quite numerous in Wales, and there’s a few in the New Forest, Wye Valley, Forest of Dean and Cumbria.  There have even been a few sightings at Carsington Water where we sometimes go to watch birds.  They have an extremely powerful beak, and are brown, ginger and have dark blue feathers on their wings.  Their beaks are powerful enough to crush cherry stones, and their range is restricted to large stretches of mature woodland.  RSPB researches…

                                                        SIBERIAN BLUE ROBIN On the 8th October 2017, a rare Siberian blue robin was seen on North Ronaldsay.  It was found by Tom Gale and Lewis Hooper.  It flew inside a building and they caught it for ringing purposes, not this bright blue chat to be caught.  They found it unbelievable that they’d found such a rarity.  They have only been seen in the British Isles three times, and one was last sighted on Shetland in October 2011.              …

Recently, it has been the awful Maltese bird hunting season.  Hunters with no regard for wildlife carelessly shoot any bird that flies into sight, anything from warblers to marsh harriers.  This year, 32 species of protected bird have been illegally shot, including hobby, black kite, honey buzzard, turtle dove, greater flamingo and purple heron and more.  But help is at hand; Birdlife Malta have been doing a brilliant job helping shot birds recover and rehabilitate them, among these birds are flamingos, sparrowhawks, nightjars and a black kite.  Also, lots of people have been going to Cyprus and freeing birds from sticks coating in sticky lyme.  Please visit Birdlife Malta’s website,…

Please go onto the Care2 Petition Site and sign this petition to help ortolan buntings!

Apparently, the recent work towards lynx rewilding in the Kielder Forest in Northumberland could lead to them being there by early 2018!  Lynx have not been in Britain since 650AD, 1342 years ago.  The thought is that as well as reducing the deer numbers that eat the vegetation, it will also bring tourists to the area in hope of seeing these predators.  These cats are thought to have a positive affect on the environment.  I hope that they’re there by next year!

I’m writing this post about the recent rare sightings over Derbyshire, and some of them are at places we’ve been too.  There has been 72 pink-footed geese on Kinder Scout near Castleton on the 15th, and something that really surprised me was that there’s been a grey phalarope at Carsington Water, where we often go, on the 13th.  There has also been a manx shearwater (it was blatantly lost, of course) on Wyver Lane in Derby, and it also turned up at Carsington.  The site seems to have had a battering of rarities recently, and along with the phalarope and shearwater, there has also been a spotted redshank earlier in…