Garden species

Poor weather and an inability to get out walking during the last week has meant trying to get just a few images from the garden species.  A good variety of winter finches along with the ever regulars have kept the garden lively and me busy topping the feeders up daily.

The now regular (and hopefully until early April) Lesser Redpolls have been visiting in huge numbers and have certainly been the highlight over the last week or so .... this fella looking splendid in gold

but small numbers of Siskins have now started to arrive giving a nice contrast to the Redpolls on the feeders.

The normal garden regulars are still in good numbers with around 25 Greenfinch visiting most days

while this winter Black Headed Gull is flexing his muscles over the garden

and at last the Mealy Redpoll has returned although getting an image has proved tricky so I will have to make do with this very poor effort. It does show the difference in ground colour and size to the aptly named Lesser Redpolls. This bird is a scarce visitor to this part of the county so it has now been recorded by the Cheshire and Wirral Ornathalogical Society (CAWOS)....... how about that for a garden visitor!