After some lengthy deliberation, close observation and with the help of some reasonable photographs, it now seems safe to identify the ‘Northern’ Redpoll at Birling as a Coues’s Arctic Redpoll. This bird has been present since the New Year with a flock of 3+ Mealy Redpolls and 22 Lesser Redpolls in a seeding game crop next to Warkworth Golf Course. Originally found by W Rutter who was on a first outing of 2016 to his local patch. Not a bad start to the New Year!
Stewart Sexton
