South Gare in winter - birds that look a bit like sparrows but aren't

On Friday I went to South Gare for the first time in what seems like ages. At first I didn't see very much, apart from the ever present gulls, although there had been reports of a few interesting birds there over the past few weeks. 

After walking around the salt marsh near the end of the Gare, and tottering around on the rocks, I was standing at the edge of the beach when I realised that just a few metres from me there was a small flock of Snow Buntings (Plectrophenax nivalis), feeding among the Marram Grass and scattered stones. I followed them for ten minutes or so as the worked their way along the breakwater, and managed to get a lot of quite good photos. 

In the summer (the breeding season) the males of this sparrow-sized species are very neat black and white birds with black bills. The females are duller and browner but still with a lot of white in the plumage. In the winter they both become browner, with yellowy-orange patches, and the bills turn yellow. Although about 60 pairs of Snow Buntings breed in the UK (at the tops of mountains in Scotland), most people here only see them in autumn and winter, when about 10-15,000 birds  come into the country. They can mostly be found at the coast. The flock I saw (about 20-30 birds) has been in the same rough location for at least the last three weeks. 

After leaving the Snow Buntings to get on with their feeding (small birds at this time of year have to feed pretty much constantly during daylight hours to stay alive), I managed to get some good views, and a few photos, of two other sparrow-like birds, one very common one, and one scarcer (although on this occasion more numerous) species.

The common one is the Linnet (Carduelis cannabina), which breeds all over the country and can be found in quite big flocks in the winter. They are closely related to Goldfinches (Carduelis carduelis) although very different-looking. Male Linnets have bright pink chests during the breeding season but lose the colour in the winter, when they look very like the streaky brown female, although with a grey head. I saw only a few Linnets on this trip - probably no more than ten, although it is hard to estimate numbers precisely when they are flying around in a flock with a very similar looking species, as these were.

The other bird, normally much scarcer, is the Twite (Carduelis flavirostris). About 10,000 pairs breed in the UK, mostly in northern and western Scotland, and north-west Ireland, with some also breeding in Snowdonia (North Wales) and in the Pennines in England. As with the Snow Bunting, numbers are boosted in winter with birds coming into the British Isles from more northerly climes. An estimated 100-150,000 birds spend the winter here, again mostly very near to the sea. They are small streaky brown finches very like a female Linnet but with a yellow bill and an unstressed buff-coloured throat. Males have a pink rump, although this can be hard to see. The name comes from the thin drawn out flight call, which sounds a bit like the word 'twite'. I reckoned that there were at least 40 Twite flying around the end of the Gare, although there might have been many more.

Snow Buntings can be very hard to see as they are well camouflaged against the rocks and sand,
and they often feed very quietly and inconspicuously

When they do fly, the white on the wing can be very obvious

A lovely view like this takes a certain amount of patience. I was extremely pleased  with this shot

Linnets are surprisingly pretty birds, even in winter, when seen close up.
This is a male, with his grey head

The Twite is a very flighty bird, as is the closely related Linnet, and so I was very happy to
get even this poor quality shot of three birds. 

In this zoomed-in version of the previous picture, showing the left-hand bird of the three, the unstreaked, pinky-buff
throat, the yellow bill, and the pink rump (which show that this is a male) can be seen. Both Twite and Linnet have
some white in the wings, which can also be seen here