The Juvenile Birder

Northern Success! We arrived at Druridge Country Park at around 8:30am after getting a lift from Keith & Dave. As soon as we got out of the car, we were greeting by around 120 Pink-footed Geese flying overhead, making their iconic call. I immediately began scanning the lake from the car park hoping to find my target bird. Whilst scanning, I was pleasantly surprised to find a pair of Red-breasted Mergansers on the lake, something I didn't expect to see on an inland lake, but not too special as we were still fairly close to the coast. We then walked further round the lake towards a big crowd of birders, when a lone birder headed our way and told us that the bird had flown down to the other end of the lake. We then went back on ourselves, but once at the other end of the lake, we still couldn't find the bird, only a few Goldeneyes and two Little Grebes . While we were scanning through the birds, we found out that the bird had been seen again, near where we had parked. We quic...

 Rare Finches! We arrived at 7:30am in hopes of seeing a rare, large finch, that I've never witnessed before. We went towards the viewing deck in front of the café, where we met a ranger named Rob. We were in luck as he said he did Hawfinch watches here at Sizergh castle. We could hear the Hawfinches, yet couldn't see them. A few minutes later, Rob let us look through his scope, pointed at a male Hawfinch feeding underneath a Hornbeam Tree. It continued to feed on the seeds and then flew off. A first for me. He then showed us a female just behind a small bump feeding. Their beaks were phenomenal, such a unique looking bird. Eurasian Nuthatches, Song Thrushes, European Greenfinches and Great Tits were also around. He then pointed the scope at another two males and one female in a tree until they flew off. The Hawfinches were stunning and in abundance. Rob could see my love for birding and it was obvious we needed guidance. He agreed to be my mentor and gave us his email . He als...