Brambling

The brambling is a rather delicately and randomly coloured finch that visits the east of england each winter in relatively small numbers.

This year - for the first time since I moved to Helpston - one has arrived in my garden in the autumn. In all previous winter seasons they have turned up in ones and twos at the end of period, often in February and March just before they return to their Scandinavian summer homes.

One bird has been feeding in the garden since 9 November, even using the bird feeders like a greenfinch - more normally they feed on the ground underneath the feeders.

It's worth checking the chaffinch flocks in your garden for bramblings - they are most often seen as part of mixed finch flocks, rather than on their own.