Have you spotted a fringilla montifringilla?

Brambling - Fringilla montifringilla - Arnstein Rønning, CC BY-SA 3.0 httpscreativecommons.orglicensesby-sa3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Chairman Peter Shallcross comments that mid-winter when everything seems to be asleep seems to get shorter each year so we easily miss the birds who come here to escape even worse weather to our North, some of which like this fringilla montifringilla provide a welcome splash of colour.  

But how did it get that name and what do we usually call it?  Andrew Graham reveals all on our MoreNews page, and says good places to see them would be beech woods, perhaps near Compton Abbas airfield or nearby Melbury Wood - if only we could get there in the current COVID lockdown.

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