SINGLE MALE BRAMBLING

 Back in November I had my first Brambling back at my feeders. For those who don't know, the Brambling is a finch species that is closely related to the Chaffinch. They come to the UK in the Winter months usually in their thousands from Scandinavia and I am lucky enough to have them visit my garden feeding station. The bird back in November was a male and I was expecting a few more Bramblings to join him hopefully male's and female's but after a couple of days the bird disappeared.

male brambling from back in November

 So that was the last I saw of any Bramblings until early January when another male Brambling turned up. Was it the same bird? who knows but I was glad to see it. I managed a couple of photo's and some video footage and again hoped that it would be joined by some more males and a few females, but yet again it stayed for just a couple of days and then as the one back in November did it vanished.

another short staying male brambling

Here's a bit of video footage.

Looking on social media especially at the bird sites that I'm a member of  my single male brambling has been the only one that has been reported and/or photographed this Winter especially in the South Wales area. Obviously there's got to be more out there but perhaps missed or not reported.

The only other explanation that I can think of is that their numbers have crashed but I haven't seen anything in the news or online that supports this. Perhaps there's plenty of natural food about for them so they're sticking to the woodlands. Whatever the reasons it would be a pity if they stopped showing at my feeders, as the pics and vids show they're a beautiful little finch and I for one would sorely miss them.