These birds deserve a page to themselves. They are simply stunning. They are irregular Winter migrants who come over from Scandinavia to take advantage of our late Autumn/Winter tree fruit. Every year is different. Some years see very few come over and others bring huge numbers. They always attract interest when they're around. They're very photogenic too. When they're hungry you can often get surprisingly close to them while they're happily filling the faces. You don't have to go deep into the countryside to see them either. A supermarket car park is as likely as anywhere. My first encounter was right outside a bingo hall, with nothing but concrete within sight. Those are the photos with the bright blue sky below.