Pulborough Brooks RSPB Reserve

The main attraction of a visit to the RSPB reserve at Pulborough Brooks at this time of year is usually to see the flocks of wildfowl, but the outstanding feature today was a very good view of five bullfinches feeding on the buds of hawthorn and blackthorn.  There were three males with their stunning pink breasts and black and white head markings and two somewhat less glamorous females.  The usual view of a bullfinch is a white rump disappearing over a hedge or skulking in the top of a tree, so this was a rare treat.  Another bird that gave a long, uninterrupted audience at close range was a goldcrest, almost within the close-focus distance of my binoculars, moving around in the hedge and also posing between the spars of a five-bar gate.