Brambling

Forty years ago I saw a Brambling for the first time and noted it down in my childhood nature notebooks:

Brambling - 1970s Nature Notebooks - The Hall of Einar - (c) David Bailey (not the)

Fringilla montifringilla. What a great name. I haven’t seen one again since 1977. I’ve been busy being a teenager and then a dad. I’m not complaining.

I’m delighted that after all this time there are Bramblings foraging on the ground under the feeders at Lago di Alviano in Italy.

Brambling - The Hall of Einar - photograph (c) David Bailey (not the)

I’m shocked at what they look like. That yellow beak! Those orange legs! That orange and black plumage. What a fabulous bird.

We are also treated to a male with his black head:

Brambling - The Hall of Einar - photograph (c) David Bailey (not the)

‘Like female Chaffinch’, I wrote forty years ago. I definitely wouldn’t write that again. There’s a female Chaffinch feeding with them. They share body shape and size but that’s about it:

Chaffinch - The Hall of Einar - photograph (c) David Bailey (not the)

I can’t wait to see them again.

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