Wildlife

James Lowen

And here are two of the Coue's from when the flock moved briefly to the top of the hedge. The sunlight and angle made for difficult photography. It makes the streaking on flanks and vent/central undertail covert look much fainter than the above image. Which got me wondering whether I bished up the ID on the bird above... or whether there were two individuals. The light explanation is most likely.

But how I wish the Coue's Arctic had shown like this Lesser! Heretical (and unscientific) though it may be, I'm a lumper when it comes to Redpolls. Hornemann's Arctic might merit species status, but I'd lump the rest!

This Mealy, on top of the hedge, is presumably one of the above two individuals.

There were at least two Mealy Redpolls in the flock of Lessers: one ringed, and one not.

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7 Dec 2017 Arctic Roll

I threatened to post a couple of photos of the Eccles-on-Sea (Norfolk) Coue's Arctic Redpoll ('Arctic Roll') if no others emerged. I haven't seen much substantive, so will now do so. The images were difficult to get as the bird feeds, largely obscured, in weeds as part of a mobile flock that can only be viewed through a couple of tiny gaps in a dense hedge. An impressive find. Here is a pic from field.