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Bullfinch
04 bw
Bullfinch
Pyrrhula pyrrhula (manipulated)
Brambling
08
Brambling
11
Brambling
Fringilla montifringilla
Forest
of Dean Arboretum. March 2008.
Mealy Redpoll 08 crop
Mealy
Redpoll
Lesser Redpoll 04b
Lesser Redpoll 07
Lesser
Redpoll
Common
redpoll
Cardeulis flammea
A few redpoll are year round residents in the Forest of Dean, but
occasionally eruptions of hundreds of migrants can occur. January
2006 witnessed one such eruption which I was lucky to witness.
These are very timid and flighty birds so a lot of patience was required
to get them on film. The subspecies, or race, "Lesser" Redpoll was
until recently classed as a species in its own right. They are
nearly always accompanied by the subspecies "Mealy" Redpoll, but to tell
the difference in the field is quite a challenge.
The top photo is the "Mealy" or "flammeus"
race with a paler buff-grey back, whereas lower photos clearly show reddish brown wings
of the "Lesser" or "cabaret" variety.
Twite
1 (S)
Twite
Cardeulis flavirostris (C) (S)
An
easily overlooked finch that breed on higher ground, typically
heather moorland. They like to perch on fences, as seen
here, and often are found in flocks during winter. This is
a breeding bird photographed in Oban, Scotland.
Greenfinch
06
Greenfinch
A
bird that appears to becoming scarcer?
Goldfinch 14 crop
Goldfinch 15
Goldfinch
Carduelis carduelis
Goldfinch are
shy birds and it's taken a few years of patience for me to get good
shots of them.
Linnet 06
Linnet Flock 01
Linnet
Acanthis cannabina
This
top photo is from the Forest of Dean in late July. In
summer the birds stay in pairs for breeding. By the winter
the linnets congregate into flocks. The lower photo only captures a small portion of the total flock of maybe
a thousand or more linnets. Linnets are
typically gregarious outside of the breeding season and
congregate in open country. They are often depicted in
bird guides as flocks in the snow but the reality of this has
become very rare. This picture perhaps captures a memory
of those winter flocks.
Also
see: Hawfinch,
Siskin
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