Damn, they are the most stunning creatures.
Merlin, during a brief break from the heavy showers today.
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You have no idea just how jealous I am.
Trick of the winter light, or is the beak really bluish?
Yes, the beak really is bluish.
not my pic
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This pic is mine
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Beauty Paul - I too am envious, pretty sure I saw either a Merlin or a Hobby at Barnes last week - being harried by a crow, no chance of a photo so guesswork based on the fact it was a hawk smaller than a Kestrel.
Extremely late for a Hobby, they’ve usually all left for Africa by early October.
Falcon 
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Probably a Kestrel then 
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although just checked…Merlin is spotted there quite often - hope springs eternal 
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What a beautiful and unusual bird! 
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Today in “unexceptional birds in Mrkettle’s garden”, it appears we have had a dunnock hoovering up below one of our bird feeders (which could be distinguished by the solitary behaviour compared to the pile of sparrows we have).
Redpoll I believe?
Seen today on Esher Common - not sure how ‘common’ these are in the South of England I haven’t seen them before
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It’s definitely a Redpoll - most probably Lesser Redpoll rather than Common (Mealy) Redpoll. Any pics from the side/back?
They’re common breeding birds throughout the whole of the country (in coniferous woods) They do tend to move around in Winter and are seen away from their breeding grounds.
I really like dunnocks - attractive and elegant birds if you get a chance to see one properly up close, plus they’re the only representative of an entire, rather obscure bird family that you can see pottering around your garden - all the rest live up mountains!
The way they almost always resolutely avoid using bird feeders directly and instead wait for other birds to start feeding and only then nip-in for the crumbs is something I find curiously endearing.
For only the second time in years I saw one feed from the fat ball holder last week, and it felt like a bit of a ‘red letter day’! Absurd I know…
Couple more here Paul - looking at Cornell could be a female Common?
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You could be right, although Cornell isn’t a great reference point for Redpolls (occuring in Britain) as they only describe two “species” Common/Mealy (flammea) and what they call Hoary (hornemanni)
Lesser (cabaret) don’t occur in North America and also they don’t mention exilipes, or rostrata.
To add to the confusion (or perhaps clear it up!) recent research (Mason and Taylor) that found no DNA variation that distinguishes Hoary Redpolls from Common Redpolls. They also found that Lesser Redpoll had extremely similar DNA sequences.
The whole taxon is a nightmare, but if you really want to go down the rabbit hole (although I don’t necessarily agree with everything in this article either!)
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