Country diary: An obliging redpoll is too hungry to be scared of us | Phil Gates

Deerness Valley Way, County Durham: These beautiful little finches have been fixtures this winter, feeding off scraps in unremarkable spotsA misty, watercolour winter morning. Windless, perfectly still except for one shaking stem among a dense stand of tall seedheads of last summer's rosebay willowherb. The perpetrator - a redpoll - appeared, methodically working its way up each sun-bleached stem, running each dry, curled pod through its beak to extract the few remaining seeds.On our weekly walks along this former railway line, we've often seen small flocks of redpolls, usually mingled with siskins, always in the treetops, silhouetted against the sky. They raided silver birches, sending down showers of tiny winged seeds as they tore into last autumn's seed catkins. Lately, they have plundered the alders, extracting seeds from woody cones. Never still for long, though, often erupting for no apparent reason into skittish flights before settling in another tree. We've watched their antics without managing to get a really good look at one. Continue reading...