The onset of winter usually marks a quiet period on Big Moor with most birds heading for warmer lands or at least warmer parts of the UK.  However for a few hardy species Big Moor is their new home for most of the winter.  Here are just 2 of them – the siskin and the redpoll.  I know that these days there are at least 2 varieties of redpoll and I assume that this is the common lesser redpoll.

I found a group of around 50 of these birds in the Barbrook Plantation feeding on alder seeds.