Redpolls

(Click title to see picture)

Guess what I saw when I just happened to be kneeling on the floor gazing out the lounge window? A redpoll! I know, I couldn't believe it either! This was only the third time in my life I've seen them and I didn't even have to leave the comfort of my on home.

Redpolls are primarily seed eaters so they can often be found foraging in vacant lots nibbling up the weed seeds. To the untrained eye they just look like sparrows with a splat of red on their crown (head).

The female I saw was deftly twirling her way up and around the dandelion stalks. Then I saw the male barely a metre away from me through the glass. It looked like someone had slit his throat with two streams of blood trikling down his breast.

I stayed transfixed for those few minutes, even managed to open the window and hear them twittering away to each other, and then they were off leaving my garden void of dandelion seeds (I knew I was culivating them for a reason).