The number of Lesser Redpolls visiting my garden is growing.

The number of Lesser Redpolls visiting my feeder is growing from just one last week (a 1st) to five today !

Here's 3 on the feeder, 1 on the floor directly underneath the feeder. The other was at the top of a shrub keeping a lookout, I expect.

                                            No more photo's of Lesser Redpolls.....promise

Thanks for real Birding experts !

It’s nice to know ‘real’ birding experts as friends, so if you make a mistake in identifying different birds they can gently correct you ( real birders don’t ridicule you ). I had made such a bo-bo. I had identified  a ‘Common Redpoll’ in my garden....guess what...it was a Lesser Redpoll. I had sent some sightings and a photo of the said bird to the East London Bird Forum ( ELBF) who record local sightings. These were published on their website, but Howard Vaughan (real expert) who administers the site corrected the I.D. before publishing....phew, doesn’t  made me look such a Blue tit.....Thanks  Howard. 
Check out the ELBF site...great for upto date local sightings.

A guide to Redpolls

Lesser Redpoll  (Carduelis cabaret)

Identification; The Redpoll is a small streaky brown finch usually located by its loud rattling call. Redpolls can usually be identified by the little red spot on the forehead which gives them their name. In females, however, this red colour can be indistinct and in juveniles it can be lacking altogether. Such birds would have to be identified by their small size, chunky shape and streaky dark brown plumage. In Britain, most birds seen are 'Lesser Redpolls' which are warmer brown in colour than the Common Redpoll, which looks whiter and was previously called 'Mealy Redpoll'.

Common Redpoll  (Carduelis flammea)  

Identification;   Larger than Lesser Redpoll, with a ‘frosty’ appearance and clean whitish flanks.

Left: Lesser Redpoll           Right: Common Redpoll 
         (photo credited to the B.T.O.)

The Garden at Lunch time.

After the first Redpoll recorded in my garden on the 5th, kept my eyes open to make sure it wasn't a one off. Further sightings, 2 yesterday (10th), but back to 1 today. A little list from today over lunch; 1 Redpoll, 4 Goldfinches, 1 Dunnock, 1 Robin, 11 House sparrows, 2 Collar doves.

A couple of photos, 1&2 the Redpoll and 3 the Robin who always chases the Dunnock out of the garden! 

Stay positive !

One of the things David spoke of was to stay positive in what bird might land in your garden, so don’t think the same old common species as usual and nothing special. So in that light I stayed positive ...guess what, a Redpoll came on my feeders, just one, but a first for my garden....Wow..Tomorrow who knows !

Starting over

After listening to David Lindo at Rainham Marshes last Friday it restarted a little burning ember in me. A couple of years ago I did have a blog called ‘The Brickfield Birder’. I had to let it lapse and most of my 'birding' due to family commitments to look after my wife who was seriously ill. However after three years she has made a remarkable recovery!

 Most of my birding was undertaken from the conservatory windows of my home looking at a small garden in the suburbs of Havering. So the addition and name change seems appropriate.

David Lindo is known as the 'Urban Birder' I don't think I live in an urban area yet, although brought up in the East End of London, so more of an inner city boy. However the threat of building on green belt land is growing ever stronger and it won't be long before I am urbanised. Until then I shall enjoy recording what is around my locality. A majority of my trips out will be local, Cranham Brickfields L.N.R and Thames Chase, Upminster and a few others, with a few day trips further afield.

So here goes.....

Welcome to my first posting on my new Blog - Passer Domesticus aka The Brickfield Birder.

My local patch; The Cranham Brickfields Local Nature Reserve in Cranham, Essex.