Thursday 14 April 2016

Rosy Redpoll

Heavy crop; horribly, horribly backlit...but…
it’s a Lesser Redpoll with a super duper rosy chest so who cares?!

Bovingdon Brickworks (BMT), yesterday: Sunshine and warmth and…ROSY CHESTED REDPOLLS.

For the past 7 days, a little flock of 6 Lesser Redpolls have been hanging out in the blossoming Blackthorn and Willow, on the west side of the site. I admire their economical approach to life. Why not spend 99.9% of the day hauled up inside a pretty Blackthorn, nibbling on juicy new buds? They barely move more than a couple of metres left, right, up or down. That’s not to say they make it easy to get photographs and/or video footage. Oh my word, no.

As I stood in front of the zinging bush, Long-tailed Tits, a pair of Blue Tits, a couple of Bullfinches and a few Goldfinches came along to join us. Dunnocks, Robins, Blackbirds, Song Thrush and couple of Chiffchaff were already within earshot. The newly returned, mixed singing Willow Warbler was east, just out of range; as were a handful of singing male Blackcaps and the long time drumming Great Spotted Woodpecker. He really means business, having started his display back at the beginning of March. Overhead, not to be forgotten, were a couple of soaring Red Kites. Finally, after umpteen useless video clips [bits of twig, flashes of tail/wing/chest/foot], one of the males ventured out to my side of the bush. It wasn’t the one with the most impressive rosy, pink chest but it was as good as I was going to get. I hope you enjoy him.


6 comments:

  1. Beautiful!!! I love the way the redpoll seems to be wondering "Where the bloody hell is that chiff chaff?" before scuttling off along the branch sideways!

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    1. lol, I should get you to write the captions for my videos/photos, Si! Thank you for your lovely comment.

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  2. Lovely photo and video. Quality bird well captured.

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  3. Great picture and a lovely video of the punk rockers of the sky! From ARF

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