Common Redpoll

Managed to get a photo or two of the Common Redpolls when I was at Carburn Park yesterday. There are plenty of these pretty little birds in the city this year. Out for the day today ....
Does anyone know that this is a female Common Redpoll for sure and not a Hoary Redpoll? Guess I should have thought of asking this sooner, not when everyone had already commented!

www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Common_Redpoll/lifehistory/ac

I uploaded today's photos really early this morning, before meeting Flickr friends Ron and Trish at Carburn Park. Trish had never seen a tiny Northern Saw-whet Owl, so that was the most important thing to do today! After that was very successfully accomplished, Ron drove us around the beautiful backroads NE and E of the city for a few hours, looking for Snowy Owls! I should mention that on two separate days, he had found a total on each day of 18 of these majestic, breathtaking birds of prey, so I was feeling really confident. Ron did what he does best - finding birds!! Even though I have seen him do this on several occasions, I still don't know how he does it. Anyway, he found a total of 12 Snowy Owls for us today! The forecast was for cloudy periods - well, all we had was cloud all the time, so I really wasn't at all hopeful that my photos would turn out. Amazingly, they seem to be OK, though I haven't looked at them properly. A bit of brightening will no doubt show up all the flaws - but, we'll see : )

I really do want to add something here - I have come across so many people (many of whom I have not met before) the last few days, while standing watching the Northern Saw-whet Owl, who have told me that they look at my photos on Flickr. I can't thank you all individually, but really want to say Thank You! for taking the time to do this. I greatly appreciate it - and it's very humbling.

Later: totally unrelated, but I came across this link for a short video showing some baby Sloths being given a bath at the The Sloth Sanctuary of Costa Rica. The link was posted by gzebear on the HEGPS (Hornby Eagle Group Projects Society) forum website. Talk about cute!!

www.slothsanctuary.com/sloth-rescue/