We’d planned to cut back the seedheads from the plants this week, but the Goldfinches were still tucking into them – I guess we’ll leave the plants a bit longer yet!
We’d planned to cut back the seedheads from the plants this week, but the Goldfinches were still tucking into them – I guess we’ll leave the plants a bit longer yet!
I know some people will look for any excuse to not remove the seed heads from a plant, but the sight of some Goldfinches happily raiding the plant for the seeds is a valid reason for me!
While the House Sparrows were hogging the bird bath, this Goldfinch sat on the edge of the Ornamental Quince. He seemed to be pretending not to pay any attention to them, but almost looked like he was watching the water flying out of the corner of his eye.
While the sparrows were fighting over the bird bath, the Goldfinch decided to make the most of the seed feeder. These seeds weren’t the success were were lead to believe they would be – it seems that the Goldfinches don’t really think of them as such a treat after all.
This bird made them seem so desirable though, that the blue tit decided to try some.
And even the sparrow wanted to sample some!
Generally though, only the finches and Coal Tit are able to get the seeds from the narrow slit in the feeder, so the sparrows have to make do with picking up any seeds that have fallen to the ground.
I’ll be honest with you – today hasn’t been the most positive of days. So not feeling that I wanted to get outside for my something wild today, I stood by the window and watched the birds. One in particular caught my eye, sitting on a nearby piece of guttering. Normally you’d see Magpies leaning into the guttering to drink the water, but this little Goldfinch seemed to be after something to eat.
The spider webs across the guttering have caught some seeds as well as the usual flies, and this finch seemed intent on plucking the seeds.
I’m amazed at how strong the web actually is – that little bird was tugging with some force to get the seeds out, but most of the web remains intact.
#30dayswild has been organised by the Wildlife Trusts, to try and get as many people connecting with nature during the month of June. To see if I can achieve blogging about that every day for a month, I decided to have a test run starting today!
14th April
I heard an bird outside that I didn’t recognise…. I think it might have been a woodpecker, but by the time I’d grabbed my camera and got back to the window, it’d flown off.
A few minutes later, however, a couple of Goldfinches landed in the tree, along with two Long-Tailed Tits that were hanging upside down from the twiggy branches. This particular Goldfinch seemed quite happy to sit and pose, so I could get a really good photo.