Thursday January 21

It was a cloudy morning. The frost was gradually chased away by rising temperatures, while some of the ice-bound pools started to thaw.

I gritted my teeth and drove down the track past Netherstead ready for another battle with my birding nemesis, the Redpolls.

After an hour in the car I had discovered a couple of things: There were record numbers present, and I am still not certain I nailed a Mealy, but I think there are some there. Let me explain.

The record count came when the whole flock lined up on the wires. There was also a significant number of Linnets, so I didn't bother with a photo-count and simply totted the Redpolls up, reaching an impressive tally of 105 before they flew back into the crop.

As I was going along the line, I noticed several pale headed ones, but chose to ignore them to get a final figure. Thereafter I concentrated on trying to confirm the presence of at least one Mealy Redpoll among the Lessers, and if I found one, trying to photograph it.

The trouble with Redpolls is that when they are in the crop you basically can't see them. When they suffer a panic attack and land in the hedge, you get twenty seconds or so to scan through them with a scope, and if you do get an interesting one, by the time the camera is ready the flock has invariably returned to the field. So you have to wait for the whole process to be repeated.

In the end I picked out a distant Redpoll which briefly turned to flash an apparently white rump, putting me in mind of a Brambling's rump. Problem was, the bird was otherwise quite brown. Then it flew off.   Later on I noticed a fairly unremarkable one facing me on the wires which was only slightly smaller than the Linnet it was next to, it then flipped around to face away revealing an obviously pale rump streaked with grey. Then it flew off.

The size issue is a real problem. Mealies should be bigger than Lessers. Several promising birds presented themselves, like this one.

But then look at the same bird in the flock, and it looks too small.

The bird in question is bottom left. Cf the Linnet, top left.

In this case I didn't see its rump at all.

After all my effort, I decided to head for a quick tour of the patch to look at easier stuff.

Peregrine

Reed Bunting

The Teal count at the Flash field was a respectable 45, the Stonechat has survived the cold snap, and I counted 11 Song Thrushes during the morning.

I plan to return on Sunday to resume my Redpoll battle.