Lesser Redpolls are back

I had the first Lesser Redpoll for 2 months on the garden feeder this morning. The last record I have was on 11 September then they disappeared and I haven't seen any until today. The same thing happened last year and in 2008, with the birds disappearing for around 2 months after the breeding season.

Perhaps the birds that breed here leave in Late August/early September and are eventually replaced in November by birds coming in from Europe? All the birds are cabaret ssp by the way. Or maybe they just move elsewhere in the country for a while/keep their heads down to moult?