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Not being a twotter or twitcher or whatever it is, I need an answer to a birdie Q
I have for the last few days seen a pair of Finches (Serins) regularly visiting the garden (ID'd due to one of those bird ID books)
Given that I live in Fife, Scotland and this is not the usual stamping ground as I understand it by several hundred miles, should I report this sighting and if so to whom?
I have a few poor grab shots of the female but not nailed the more vibrant but nervous male yet
Hi Roxpix, firstly do you have a phot of the birds?
Serin are extremely rare in Scotland, and usually only scarce migrants in the UK as a whole (although breeding has occurred before). A tip on their ID is they have an extremely small bill.
A serin will also have a yellow rump but a yellowhammer would have a reddish brown one (Serins are also much smaller).
Well it looks like they are yellowhammers, the pics I took earlier show a reddish brown rump so that confirms it & just had three in the garden at once, I'll assume parent/s & young (yellow breasted birds in scotland is still a first for us)
Apologies if I got anyone excited but I guess you'd all suspect an basic ID error from a non bird watcher over a rare sighting 
I have to say the two ref books we have offer conflicting details for size of both birds (+/- 20%) which threw us a bit but my image V's online search's suggest I should have kept my gob shut for a few more hours 
Still we're thrilled to have yellowhammers visiting out humble garden for several days now & at least a dozen times just today so going to have fun looking out for them for the next couple of weeks
slightly on topic ish... but not an image but a SOUND of a bird? .... whilst at Radipole reserve in Weymouth Dan 1984 and I distinctivly heard a "grunting" noise!! yes just like a pig hidden somewhere in the reeds??? im not aware of pigs in the reeds either lol. so we listened fascintated... and there it was again " gruuuunt" does anybody know of any birds in marsh/wetland areas that makes such odd noises??
tia
matt.
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