Working from home this morning I am going through some emails. The radio is playing Planet Rock in the living room, Peggy is in her bed and I am drinking tea while reading.
Then, like waking up from a dream, I am suddenly back in the room. What has woken me I wonder?
Wee-la-pyoo-weeooo. Outside. And again, loudly, close. Wee pyoo-la weeoo again.
Suddenly I am cattle prodded into action. What on earth is that! A voice that shone out as a total stranger in the midst of Starlings, Blackbirds and Sparrows.
At this stage I 100% knew this was something good in my garden. It didnt sound like an unusual Song Thrush, a Great Tit or a Starling mimic. No, it was proper. A fixed proper song.
Panic set in, in slow motion. I grabbed my camera, swapped from the 100mm macro lens to the 420mm long lens, checked camera settings, put my phone in my pocket in case I need to record sound, grabbed my bins off the stairs then paused, listening and looking through the window. Trying not to be there.
I knock the radio off. Its quiet outside. No repeat performance, so I creep outside and stand quietly around the gable end not wishing to spook our visitor. Come on , sing again...nothing. I quietly walked into the garden and sat on a chair watching the bushes and trees. A Tree Sparrow, a Blue Tit but the wind in the leaves was making seeing a movement impossible. There was no further singing either.
After 10 mins I came back indoors. Hands shaking a little bit with the adrenaline.
I suspected who the garden singer was but wasnt closely familiar so I typed into Google -
'Rosefinch, singing'. This came up...
'Weeyoo - teoo - tu- peeyoo' . Confirmed what I already knew.
I called John who came over. I didnt release news straight away as I couldnt locate the bird, so we went out for a couple of hours searching the village and lane, but to no avail.
This is my second Common Rosefinch in the garden after one in 2010, that gave a slightly better show than this one....as I write, the radio is still off and my feeders are topped up with seed.
I am waiting...
EDIT- 28/05/25 No further sign of the Rosefinch. Bugger.
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| My last garden Rosefinch 15 years ago last week... |
2 comments:
Wow - great skillz nailed from being asleep! Shame you couldnt get a view of it before it moved on. Not a song I've ever heard, but pretty distinctive!
Cheers mate. It is a great song. My last one a first summer male was relatively quiet but located in exactly the same way, from indoors. That one was easily watched however on and off all day. This one, the song was much louder and cleaner so I suspect Ive missed seeing a nice red one!
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