Winters come around with alarming regularity and at the start of everyone I wonder……. will it be this year, will this be the year that we have a Brambling in the garden……?  It happened today at 2.33, and yes it was that good! The excitement started this morning, I had been out for a morning walk, in the rain but never the less, I had a good time. I saw the female Smew and took pictures of a Red breasted Merganser in flight…… a lot of fun. Then back home and drinking coffee in the kitchen something caught my eye flying up from the lawn, I got a quick flash of a whitish/light rump and thought, hen Bullfinch? I rushed for the binos but no sign of the bird in question which I doubted was a Bullfinch anyway and I didn't really give it much more thought. The weather was wet and dreary but not completely dark, there was still enough light to sit in the garden hide and I went out to try and photograph one of the numerous Chaffinches that were coming and going to the seed on the lawn. Not really concentrating, I waited for the Chaffies to come down, one did and I quickly caught sight of it……. I was shocked……… a Brambling!!!!!!!!!   I struggled to get my camera trained on it and the movement upset it and off it went giving me a flash of that lightish rump…… so there was the mystery solved. That's what I had seen early. I was really thrilled. I have lived here for 26 years and never seen a Brambling in the garden.  Especially during the last 5 years, I have scanned every Chaffinch to double check, having said that I almost missed today's bird so I guess we may have had one before which has gone undetected. Today's bird still hadn't been photographed so I was patient and waited for it to hopefully come back. Eventually, there it was in the apple tree with three Chaffinch and the photo above is what I saw!

As I waited, a male Blackcap came down to feed and I was really surprised to see it eating Sunflower Hearts. Even though it was quite dull by now, I still took some nice portraits.

Oh and here is one of the flying Merganser pictures from the morning.