My sister who lives in Derbyshire gets very different birds to me, but they had groups of mixed finches over the winter. Mainly siskins, goldfinches, greenfinches, but I am pretty sure she had a brambling as well. They are obviously rare visitors to bird tables.
They will mix in with flocks of finches during the winter so it wouldn't surprise me if she has and they will visit gardens too.
They are woodland and farmland birds but they're also quite common in reed beds especially on the east coast.
That's where I've seen them previously, at Tetney Marshes on the Humber.
We've had long tailed tits on the peanuts recently so I set the camera up today, quite close to get some good pics and instead, the fatballs behind the camera we're buzzing with life 🙄