A rare garden visitor

While I was on the phone yesterday afternoon I glanced out of the window and saw a bird I didn't immediately recognise.  I peered at it for a few seconds but then all the birds were spooked by something and flew off.  It was larger than a bullfinch with a pale beige front and a neat black bib but it was looking straight towards me so that is as much as I could see.  I wondered about a hawfinch or possibly a waxwing, although a waxwing wouldn't come near a feeder. During the rest of the phone call and the rest of the afternoon it didn't return so I thought I would never know what it was.

Then first thing this morning it was back.  And it was a hawfinch.  As always, there was camera close at hand so this time I was able to take a photo.

I even had time to change to a camera with a longer lens to get some slightly less grainy photos.

Hawfinches are scarce birds and rare garden visitors.  A few years ago I spent two days wandering around fields near Morpeth, a few miles north of here, to get some rather distant views and then this one turns up almost on my doorstep. What a treat.

I don't keep a formal garden list but it would now include yellowhammer, waxwing, red-backed shrike, oystercatcher, buzzard, woodcock, ring-necked parakeet - and hawfinch.  I wonder what will turn up next.