I spent this morning birding at Newchurch Common, and it didn't take long to find my first bramblings of the year. 4 were seen feeding on the alders as I was walking north to the set-aside field, where over a hundred were seen. The views were terrible as the sun was shining down on them, so there could have been more, with 450 birds reported yesterday in the whole area. Moving on to the east side of the reserve, I soon picked up the long-staying Smew of unknown origin that has been present on and off on this site since December 2014.
FEMALE SMEW SLEEPING IN EAST BAY
The stubble fields beyond the east bay had good numbers of Chaffinch in them, and at least twenty Brambling were amongst them. They were always distant, but I did manage to get a male bird sitting out in a tree.
Moving on from here, due to time, I called in at Cuddington on the way home and connected with two Hawfinches that have been present since mid-December. The birds were very elusive and only showed for a few seconds at the top of the trees before flying. I did manage to get photos of them, but they were crap, as you can see, due to light and them flying off.
