There have been upto 4 redpoll visiting my parents garden since christmas and today I had a nice surprise of a flock of 10-12 descend onto the feeders. Almost immediately a pale, greyish bird jumped out at me and I instantly thought meally redpoll. It was quite small, only marginally larger, if even, than the lessers but its cold grey colour, white underparts and clean white wing-bar made me think it was good enough for a meally. Hopefully it will stay around for a few days and I can get the scope or camera onto it for a better view
Meally redpoll above left with one of the typical lesser redpolls. The cold grey plumage and streaked white rump really stood out amongst the lessers.
Lesser redpoll sketches, the birds were quite flighty and numbers disapeared for periods of time. Most years I find a few meally's in amongst flocks of redpoll at traditional sites where I know there are stands of alders. Usually then the birds are feeding high up and difficult to see well, today I had left my bins and scope elsewhere!
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