Falcon, Finches, and Buntings

 A stunningly beautiful day today with both superb light and visibility.  A cool 7 degrees Celsius with a fresh northerly wind.  Other than a few moderate to severe morning frosts there has been little winter to talk of so far this year.  There is still time for wintry conditions, however, as we approach March, any such conditions should be short lived.

This morning I walked private land within a part of the army training area. The topography here is not what I expect many who do not know Norfolk perceive, this part of my patch is very undulating with some decent climbs away from low lying areas, but one thing Norfolk is famous for are the vast skyscapes which exist here in abundance.

Brambling. Note the contrasting orange and white underparts

Walking along hedgerows and game cover produced many Brambling, Chaffinches, Yellowhammers, and Reed Buntings.  When at rest in a tree one beautiful Brambling showed distinct differences from its close cousin, the Chaffinch.  Even without optics, a Brambling was seen perched in a tree next to a Chaffinch, the Brambling has an orange breast contrasting strongly with pure white underparts, the female Chaffinch has mousey brown underparts whilst the male bird is pinkish, both sexes lack the bright white seen on Brambling.  Both Finch species were seen around game cover which is a good source of cover and food for these birds.

A very respectable count of 1000+ Starlings were seen on heathland along with around 30 Lapwings. The Starlings occasionally rose up in unison from the ground and settle again, however, my attention was then drawn when the birds rose high in a tight murmuration, at the same time, the Lapwings rose in a panic, and Pigeons went everywhere, straight away I knew a raptor was the cause of this panic.  I immediately began a search with binoculars through the panicking birds and eventually located a raptor, its stiff-winged flight pointing straight away to a Falcon species, this was a Peregrine, its stiff wings looking quite different from all other birds in the sky.  The upperparts were grey and as the bird turned towards me the bright sunshine showed the conspicuous white facial pattern.

Two Goshawks were seen this morning, one being a juvenile bird, probably the same bird I saw recently. This sighting saw the Goshawk soaring to quite a height, it then descended very fast towards woodland with wings closed giving the bird a torpedo-like shape, a very impressive sight.

On sheep-grazed grassland where turnips and probably other spill provided a food source for sheep, also attracted 70+ Yellowhammers to the feed. When retreated to a hedge the gathering of Yellowhammers appeared like a show of yellow flowers as they sat for a while before returning to feed.

Finally, a pair of Stonechats were seen on fencing from where they flew to the ground to gather invertebrate food before returning to the fence.