Common Scoter (Melanitta nigra) & Ring-necked Duck (Aythya collaris) Whitlingham Country Park Norfolk 13th December 2012

Lucky morning as these two would normally be in the most distant sections of the Great Broad.

Hornemann's Arctic Redpoll (Carduelis hornemanni hornemanni) Aldeburgh Suffolk UK GB December 2012

Can't resist tame birds. Perhaps surprisingly it was still very tricky to photograph well. At least it didn't fly away, but it could spend a couple of hours missing and feed in the no-go area of the yacht club car park. Other little difficulties included its rapidly moving bill as it continually munched away on Long-horned Poppy seeds. It spent long periods partially obscured by the Long-horned Poppies and in sunny conditions the Poppies cast distracting shadows on the bird. In dull conditions it was awkward to balance the depth of field with high shutter speed to stop bill movement. You would need a good to get depth of field to enable both the bill and wing to be in focus (especially as it is such a podgy thing).