04/01/2019 Calderstones Park, Allerton, Liverpool


Brambling: Second stop was to Calderstones Park in Allerton, named after the ancient megaliths situated in the park, which are said to be older than Stonehenge.









This park is huge, and without the help from Gill and Paul Kurs i would still be wandering around the park, lost, looking for ginger finches.





They are best viewed from the entrance opposite Harthill Road, concentrate on the boundary fence to the allotments and the big holly near the gates.




There is a large flock in this area of around 20 birds. I happily spent most of the afternoon with these fine birds as they foraged on the ground amongst the beech nuts of the beech trees.









Their orange camouflage is suburb aganist the beech nuts and leaves.








Due to its stature the bird has a similar diet to the chaffinch and will was mixing with its commoner counterpart.










As I observed brambling enjoy feeding on beech nuts and we always get more of them in Britain when the beech trees in Scandinavia fail to produce sufficient seed but any cold snap.