Lesser not Common you Tosser!

In the autumn I managed to catch 157 Lesser Redpoll at Thornton. On the 30th Oct. I caught 3 birds that on plumage seemed very different to the others. They were paler and seemed to have more contrast in their plumage. They were less brown and distinctly paler. I considered that they were Common Redpoll. The wing lengths were in the lower range at 70 and the longest being 72. The weights were however only between 10-11 gms. Thanks to the efforts of John Cranfield of Stanford R.G. my error has been corrected. They were infact Lessers. As John rightly says , with this difficult group it is important to take all criteria into account before assigning to race. I will be again attempting to catch Redpoll this autumn. I should now be better informed and less likely to make a mistake in my i.d. I would like to take this opportunity to encourage anyone who views any of the blogs I contribute to to have no hesitation in putting me right!