Dad offered to take me to have another go at the Rosefinch this afternoon if I promised to revise in the morning (for once!), this seemed like a fair deal as I didn't fancy the expense and hassle of the public transport again like I did yesterday.
The Satnav kept changing routes because just about everywhere seemed to have disruptions so we arrived later than planned at about 3.15pm. As I got out of the car and joined the group of about 10 birders present the bird could be heard singing almost immediately but after this it went silent until just before 6pm when it sang again as a very nice chap called Bob joined me.
After trying different angles all birders present grouped up and staked it out from south of the car park, it was a long wait and people came and went until one birder wandered off slightly and called us over as he saw the bird drop down from a bush into the low vegetation. Two birds, one a Greenfinch, flew from the general area to a nearby bush, the other bird then flew back revealing itself to be a streaky plain brown bird which everyone agreed was without doubt the Common Rosefinch. THANK GOODNESS! It was such a relief, I thought I'd have to come back again the next morning but I had finally bagged the bird, the 9th record for London and an overdue British tick. The 9 hours I'd put in over these two days suddenly became very worthwhile even though I'd seen the bird for about 3 seconds!
