February 9, 2006
Grosbec casse-noyaux, Pinson du Nord et une oie mystérieuse...
I think I've pinned down the Hawfinches on campus - they seem to favour a spot a few minutes' walk from my office in the last hour of daylight. These photos were taken between (and during!) downpours, so the light wasn't great.
You can see why they call them 'grosbecs' over here!
Preening following heavy rain.
Hawfinch by moonlight.
An added bonus was this male Brambling which flew in to dry off between showers.
While watching the Brambling I heard several geese calling, and shortly after a flock of about 150 large grey geese flew over.
On size and colour they had to be Greylag or Bean Geese. The range map in my Collins guide suggests that Bean is more likely in this region, and they didn't sound like 'farmyard' geese, so I'm inclined to go with the latter - does anyone have any comments?
Update: actually, found a checklist of birds in the Ile-de-France region, and Greylags are much more likely, especially since someone else in the region had a large flyover of Greylags yesterday!
Posted by rjhall at February 9, 2006 1:19 PM