And there was me thinking you liked the odd play on words which is all I was doing, ah well, Ā« and some fell on stony ground Ā» as the good book says
Checking in another good book ( Shirihai and Svensson) confirms they have two broods ( except way oop north, Finland for example) so as Butty has just suggested, as Common breeds at one year old like Black Redstart, your Shropshire male was perhaps one of those, alternatively it your observation was later in the summer itās interesting to read that the adult males start their moult into a duller plumage from July.
Aargh, while writing this post having done some reading just for you Ken I see your latest missive which makes a lot of my paragraph above irrelevant (sigh) - so did you definitely see three differently plumaged individuals feeding the young? If just two, itās worth noting that S and S state that Ā« Rarely, adult female can develop advanced male-like plumage Ā»ā¦ā¦.