Have I seen something fairly unusual?

Hello Everybody,

First time post but I wanted to see whether I had seen something rare during my last weekend bird count.  I got up bright and early last Saturday 29/01/11 (well early for me!!).  I started my hour long count at 8.30am.

The usual visitors turned up for breakfast, sparrows, a robin, a few tits, couple of magpies, dunnocks etc and then what I thought was one of my usual goldfinches arrived on the nyjer seed feeder, only it did not look quite right.  It had brown speckled flanks, a slightly forked tail, a big red blob on its head and a sort of black beard around its beak.  I got the binoculars out and sure enough it was unlike any goldfinch I have ever seen.  I got my RSPB books out and also a freebie booklet from the Daily Telegraph which finally confirmed for me that my visitor was a redpoll (said lesser redpoll in the Telegraph booklet so not sure if there is a greater one - I am fairly new to watching having only been turned onto the varieties we have in this country quite recently).  He (or she) has returned a couple of times more although the recent storms in North Wales seem to have put quite a few of my visitors off.  Could be the fact half my roof was blown off on Friday night!!!!

So have I got excited for good reason or is my relative novice state carrying me away?  I only really came into birdwatching last October when my wife and I went to the RSPB reserve on the Conwy Estuary.  We were literally blown away with the varieties of birds there and again I saw my first Wheatear.  I did not know what it was at the time but a gentleman in the hide next to me was very helpful and said it was quite an unusual visitor there.  Pretty little thing, the bird that is not the gentleman.  So we joined RSPB and for the first time this year joined the Garden Bird Count.

So there we are- Lesser Redpoll - good spot or pretty average?