Fri 05/01/2018

Whenever I have walked round to the Security gatehouse at work these last few cold, winter weeks, I have seen a flock of linnets. We get a lot of these down in this area all year round, but in the winter they like to congregate around the waste ground behind the warehouse. They are sparrow-sized and sparrow-shaped, but they gather in a loose knot of about 15 birds, wheeling round above the ground for a few turns before landing on the fence or the seed-rich dead undergrowth. I managed to get a photo today, although the light was so bad that hardly any detail can be made out – I think you can tell they are linnets though!