I do like a good search through a redpoll flock in the winter and having failed to find many in Fife, the pull of a big flock at Hopes Reservoir, Lothian including 1-2 Coues Arctic and many Mealy Redpoll was too much to resist.
They made me work hard but that's not a bad thing. A game of cat and mouse up and down a steep slope (when I realised I spend too much time sat at a desk these days). I found a flock of around 60 redpolls, very mobile at first. They were dropping onto to the ground to feed which sounds like a good thing, problem was they were feeding amongst deep heather. Crazy as it sounds my first view of the Coue's was in flight, a gleaming unmarked white rump patch, like no other bird in the flock. It was like picking out a single Brambling from a flock of Chaffinches.
Despite carefully following the birds and then sitting down waiting for them to get settled I was struggling to get decent views, then low cloud/mist came down, the birds melted away.
Walking back the way I came, my luck changed, firstly the sun came out and then I re-found the flock. Some more typical redpoll behaviour followed, they were were always just out of reach, perching out of sight or obscured. Then suddenly they flew towards me as I sat quietly under a tree and there it was, a polar bear of a redpoll sitting in the sun.
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| Lesser |
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| Mealy |
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| The Yeti |
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| Arctic, 2x Lesser and Mealy bottom right. |
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