Help please.

www.rspb.org.uk/wildlife/birdguide/name/r/redstart/
I think the female has no black markings. Click on the arrow on illustration to see photo.

I'll get the bird book out and have a closer look. They're lively birds, bobbing up and down like robins do.

There is such a thing as a black redstart, Tricia, but they do not have the red breast, and the back as well as the face is black.

click.email.rspb.org.uk/?qs=8e36fa7cc4e6faba8e04505c95d8d1508512040c0997b76f6bdc326ea0c50ec5072c88a3d988df9a
Anyone interested in birds and needs a new nestbox, the RSPB has commissioned people like Conran and Rhodes to design nestboxes. They are being auctioned on e-bay at the moment.

We have lots of those, we call them black redstarts, don't know if that's correct. They breed in our barn.
Characteristic clicking warning call.

Yes, that's a picture of a redstart, young male by the look of it, with the stripe on the neck. However, Aka did not say that her bird had a black face.

Looks to me like a common redstart shysal

This is my photo in case it shows well enough.

Could it be a redstart? It is a member of the robin family and I seem to remember that they waggle their bottoms. I snapped one a few years ago but too small on photo to show here.

Good, I can stop looking now. I know that there are birds that have been blown over from the USA and the American Robin is more thrush size, but bramblings would come into gardens now, and in flocks with goldfinches.
You'll have to have a camera ready for when it comes back.

Yes, I think that's it. Thanks Jen

I'll look up brambling Jen but it was just too.....elegant.....to be a robin.

A brambling?
Could it just be a hungry robin?

Just seen a bird on the feeder that looked liked a robin, but slimmer, slightly bigger and with longer legs. Any suggestions please!

Agrimony people?
The info does say that it contains some powerful anti worming chemicals etc.

An amazing site, Anno.
Agrimony is a Bach flower remedy. Apparently Agrimony people often take to drink and drugs!

Glad to oblige, Jess, even if I was wrong about bog asphodel.

Kerria is a shrub, but when shrubs grow on cliff tops they are often stunted because of the effect of the wind.
The reason I mentioned the Kerria is because this is the first time it has flowered in the Autumn. Over 30 years ago, we went on holiday to the New Forest. My husband mentioned to the B&B owner that he liked a particular plant and asked him what it was. When we left there was a cutting potted up for us. It has accompanied us to Hull, York and now Durham, as cuttings every time we moved, sometimes potted, sometimes planted.

ah - anno i went to the site and started clicking down the list of yellow flowers and there it is, second on the list - ta -daaa.... It's AGRIMONY. The ones round here have a few more flower heads than the pic, but the seeds are unmistakable! Thanks for nudging me in the right direction.

There are close-ups of bog asphodel on this site which look like your description, but the habitat doesn't seem to fit.

Not a shrub, a wayside plant about 20-30 cm high. Will try to do field trip with camera today.
It's very similar *bags" to the goldenrod but that family, like the ragworts have fluffy seeds not hooky ones. Isn't it interesting the way you get convergent evolution in different flowers. In uk spring for instance there are lots of bushes and wayside plants that produce frothy white flower heads with a mass of tiny florets - starts with blackthorn and goes through to elder, meadowsweet and cow parsley. I always think they must be aimed at the same 'customer base' of insects. Many of them even smell similar.

I thought kerria was a shrub. BTW, jend, the pruning after flowering may help it to re-flower, though actually many of my shrubs have a second flowering in autumn. It's not usually as abundant as the spring/summer flowering, but it's certainly very common.

Could it be Kerria, Jess. I only ask because I have noticed that my Kerria has just started flowering again for some strange reason. But I have no idea what the seedpods look like because I always prune after flowering.

Did you get any further with identifying that plant, jess? #intrigued

I'm thinking possibly Solidago virgaurea, but I don't know what its seed heads look like. Grows on western cliffs.