On Monday 27th February, Gordon and I went to Lakeside Country Park at Eastleigh, which is situated directly opposite Southampton Airport, to try to find the Hawfinches that had been seen there. On arrival we parked up and walked a short distance to an area behind the miniature steam railway station, which we believed to be the general area where they had been seen. We had a good look around and found plenty of Goldfinch and Greenfinch, but no Hawfinch. After completing a lap of the area we headed back to the rear of the railway station to scan the trees again. I found another Goldfinch perched at the top of a Silver Birch and took my eye away from the scope to speak to Gordon and when I looked through it again there was a male HAWFINCH perched nearby. Gordon and I then found another three in the same tree and we had decent views of the birds. After about fifteen minutes or so they took off, but were joined by another five HAWFINCH that must have been in another tree nearby but not seen by us. All nine birds then flew around the immediate area in a circle and then headed off towards some trees away from us where they were lost from sight. These were the first HAWFINCH that Gordon and myself had seen and we were surprised by the size of their bill because before our trip we had looked at illustrations in 'Collins Birdguide'. So very content with seeing the HAWFINCH, we left Lakeside and travelled to Mudeford Quay and Keyhaven/Pennington, where we spent the rest of the day.
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