Small finches, Peak District, UK (1 Viewer)

Saw these last weekend (20th September) near Grindleford in the Peak District. There was a large flock (maybe 50+) of birds that struck me as very small (like Blue Tit/Chiffchaff sort of size), and because there was low sun behind them I couldn't make out much else beyond that they had forked tails, until I managed to get an angle with other trees behind the tree they were in (I have several other photos that are basically just silhouettes, although having seen what people manage to get out of similar photos by lightening them on this forum, I wonder if they might yield some identifiable details that way...)

I don't know if it was a single-species or mixed-species flock, but it seemed quite tightly organised - every time I moved a few steps to find a new angle to take a photo from, they all flew up in unison and then settled down again within seconds.

Going through the photos now there are a couple of obvious male Siskins, but I'm much less sure about the browner birds, many of which show no hint of green/yellow... and particularly confused by the one that seems yellowish but with a rusty/reddish "cap"... are these all Siskins of various plumages, or is there anything else in there?

Obvious male Siskin for comparison - this was cropped out of the same photo as the second-to-last one above (with the apparent reddish "cap") and looked the same size.

Lesser Redpolls, lovely to see and hear a largish mixed flock. Used to be quite regular many moons ago, feeding in Alders along the River Thames during the winter.

PYRTLE said:

Lesser Redpolls, lovely to see and hear a largish mixed flock. Used to be quite regular many moons ago, feeding in Alders along the River Thames during the winter.

Click to expand...

I was wondering if some of them could be Redpolls, but didn't see any with red quite obvious enough to be sure (also thought the red would look more pinkish rather than rusty/orangish like these)... do you think all 5 birds in the top post are LR?

For me, yes, despite the images being slightly soft.

Ditto to Lesser Redpolls for 1, 2, 4, 5 :t:


#3 I suspect might be a Common [Mealy] Redpoll - very white wingbar and overall 'frosted' greyish colour fits. Not 100% sure given the pic quality though.