Bogeys!

Everything comes to he who waits, used but probably not originated by Violet Fane (1843-1905) in her poem Tout vient ß qui sait attendre. 

Saturday's ex-bogey was the R-n Duck, and then within 48 hours, another eliminated.  To read yesterday of a Hawfinch that was NOT at Hulne Park, NOT at Croxdale and NOT at Sizergh Castle was great, but nearly on the house/office doorstep at Morpeth was too good to miss.

So, using BirdGuides' directions, off to the B6343 looking for a big beech hedge or two.  After calls to a couple of mentors about where they interpreted the location as, and you know who you are, after 30 'wasted minutes', I found the mini-twitch with a few other notable birders there.

Having just missed one fly-over from the SW, the bird was allegedly somewhere in the middle of the field, probably on the ground, near the fourth tree north of the path, we waited.  And waited.  And waited some more.  Then, imagine my surprise when it appeared from the east (probably the south end of the eastern-most tree in the hedgerow) and flew high and west and then south, did a circle of the horse field to the south of the path and then disappeared into the woods.

And that was it.  Or so it seemed.  Until Vee of veefotos fame spotted a distant bird at the top of a tree at the north end of western most hedgeline.  But the combined bins of four could not be 100%.  I had left my scope in the car, which was parked on the main road, as my perception of a hedge was NOT a line of trees over 20 feet tall and a hundred yards or more long.  PC Wanderings was one of the quartet, and his photoskills show that the was it/wasn't it debate should be firmly the former.

So there you are, two bogeys well and truly blown away - and back tomorrow for another try and some closer views.

And loads of Jays about too (and Marsh Tit heard but not seen).