Since receiving a pair of binoculars for Christmas I've been watching out for birds much more than before – and have been able to see them closer up than ever before too.
I was thrilled on Sunday whilst down at the WWA to see something bright and slightly unusual in a tree near the feeder. One of the other committee members that was down in the hide with me helped me to identify it as a bullfinch. Reading up now on the RSPB website I note that bullfinches now have a "red status" meaning that they meet the following "criteria":
- Globally threatened
- Historical population decline in UK during 1800 – 1995
- Rapid (> or =50%) decline in UK breeding population over last 25 years
- Rapid (> or =50%) contraction of UK breeding range over last 25 years
All in all, meaning that I'm particular pleased to have seen one. Even better still it soon plucked up the courage to go to the feeder, and was joined there by what someone else identified as a female. And to add to the excitement we saw a second pair in a tree at the same time, meaning that there must have been at least two pairs on site at the time. I even managed to get a (distant) photo of the pair together on the feeder.
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