Brambling...

Brambling are just one of those birds that you long to see each winter, special birds because they are usually fairly scarce, they always look great with their contrasting black, white and orange plumage and they are a sure sign that it's cold!

I've had Brambling at Whitestaunton before, but only the odd one or two and certainly not every year. This year there have been good numbers locally including about a dozen regular birds with the local Chaffinch flock about 500 meters south of the house. Every morning on the school run to Axminster I keep a keen eye out for the white rumps as they disappear up into the beech trees along the roadside. So perhaps it's no surprise that they would eventually put in an appearance here, after all there's no shortage of seed for them in the garden.

I've been lucky to have four over the last few days, two male and two female. They are much shyer than the Chaffinches they associate with, never coming to the main bird table but preferring the seed table I set up for the Hawfinch at the end of last year, which is situated further from the house by the garden shed. Dave Helliar came to enjoy them at the weekend and was treated to close views of the residing Hawfinch too. In fact there are seven species of finch present at the moment with Goldfinch, Greenfinch, Bullfinch, Chaffinch, Brambling, Siskin and Hawfinch being seen on a daily basis. After much waiting, hidden from view, I managed a bit of long distance (hence the quality) video.

If they keep coming in, I'll definitely be trying to get some better clips of them.

Three of the Brambling with a pair of Bullfinch

Brambling, male: R. Harris