Separated at birth

So I did go for el Sparrow, and it's shipboard pal the Junco. We had thought the little village on the edge of the Solent would be heaving with birders so we charged down early doors to get a good place in the line for the bacon sarnies and coffee at the village hall. The sparrow did the decent thing and waited till we had had our fill and then it briefly did its sparrow thing and disappeared for a while.






Luckily I decided against adding to my increasing bulk with more of the village halls charitable offerings (ridiculously priced at £1.50 a roll) and waited. This was not such a bad little spot for a council estate.




The sparrow duly reappeared and we all had our fill as it picked out the most annoying twigs and branches to hide behind.



Satiated with sparrow paella. We headed further in land for further off course visitor. Once there it didn't take long to pick out the rather attractive bird in the throng of Chaffinch and Reed Bunting. It didn't come too close, but you can't have everything;Crossbills (tick).



Later a trio of Bewick (in with a large number of Mute and brace of Whooper); a controversial Ferruginous Duck (not for me, I'll tick anything); Marsh Tit calling, and a female Brambling (tick, tick, tick, tick)









Probably the best of the day though: Hawfinch. My first and rather special. So another round of thanks to the lads for making that possible.