Redpolls

There has been a Coues's Arctic Redpoll reported in Bedford for the last couple of days, so took the short trip up the A1 to see what I could find. There was a very mobile flock of around a dozen birds that gave good but distant views until for a ten minute spell they landed in among some Silver Birches fairly close by and for a ten minute spell gave excellent views.

During that spell i fired off 406 photos which explains why this is a bit of a back blip, having to sort through them, working out what was what, was an enjoyable if time consuming task.

The flock contained three Redpoll species:

The top left is a Lesser Redpoll Carduelis cabaret, the Redpoll most likely to be seen in Britain, the next four photos are examples of Mealy Redpolls Carduelis flammea flammea, a scarcer visitor to Britain and the final five photos are of the rarity in the flock a Coues's Arctic Redpoll Carduelis hornemanni exilipes.

Now I really should be thinking of packing and not blipping, so appologies if comments are a bit sparse.

Bigpolls