
In a Silver Birch I picked out 2x Chaffinches and a Redwing, and then 2x Goldfinch flew in, a bonus species on this stretch and then another, slightly smaller bird...a Redpoll! This is the first time I'd seen one in this area of the patch despite regularly scanning the Italian Alder windbreaks that are prevalent in the surronding orchards. It was feeding quite contently on it's own, so I managed to get good views, my immediate impression was Mealy (Common). It looked bulky (although it was about -4.C so may have been fluffed up!), clean with no evidence of any buff wash across the breast or flanks. It had pale/grey cheeks and bold, broad well-defined streaks along the flanks. The wing bar was prominient and very pale. Face-on it looked pretty mean, bulging eyes with bull-neck and broad black bib and very dark lores. It was quite high in the tree but I spent about 10 minutes trying to get some photos, a selection of the better ones (!) below. I'm happy to call Common, but welcome comments/discussion (adam.whitehouse@emr.ac.uk). Seems to be the winter of Redpolls for me this year-I do tend to latch onto species!





1 comment:
Should have rung in sick Adam, looks like it could have been a good morning!!
Post a Comment