I've chosen two very different species to be my special ‘birds of the winter’.

The first has to be the colourful goldfinch, a flock of around fifteen being ever present in my garden.

The second is the redwing (pictured) the smallest, shyest and most attractive member of the thrush family.

They arrived from Scandinavia in unprecedented numbers last autumn to spend the winter here.

Sexes are alike with warm, brown upper parts, distinctive pale cream eye stripes above and below each eye and red patches on flanks and under wings but these are not always visible while the breast is multi-spotted.

Always in flocks, they resemble starlings in flight.

Flocks of fifty plus regularly fly over the house before splitting into smaller groups to perch in the tallest trees around from where they survey the scene below.

They remain in the trees for some time chattering away in soft muted, slightly musical, tones.

Suddenly, several break away uttering their thin ‘seep-seep’ contact calls and zoom down at speed to home in on garden bushes of holly, pyracantha, hawthorn and ivy.

They concentrate on stripping the berries of one bush completely before moving on.

Redwings can also be seen foraging on the ground for worms and insects, often accompanied by the much larger fieldfare, another winter visitor from northern Europe.

Both redwings and fieldfares will remain with us until late March or early April before returning north to breed.

I'll be sorry to see them go as they make a welcome and interesting addition to our winter birdlife.