I was just in the midst of a telephone call giving PD a friendly telling off for not telling us that Fran, our mutual friend, had had an accident while we were away, when my eyes were caught by a flash of gold at the bird feeders. What's this? I wondered. I'm sure it's not a greenfinch, but what is it?
Earlier this morning, I'd dug out our binoculars as we were bemused by an unusual bird we'd seen over dinner last night. It looked not unlike an oversized robin. But it was so oversized it had to be a member of the thrush family, possibly a female blackbird. It certainly seemed friendly with the other blackbirds in the garden, yet it had this very rosy breast. Our only conclusion was it had to be an adolescent female. Nonetheless, the binoculars were out ready this morning, in the hope of getting a closer look at this phenomenon.
Instead I trained the binoculars on the two mystery birds on the feeders. Sure enough they were goldfinches. We've lived here nearly 10 years now & only once before has a goldfinch visited. Neighbours have all said they've heard them from our direction, but as I don't know their song that hasn't helped much.
This pair have discovered our feeders at last. I hope they become regular feeders. Their red faces & bright yellow wing flashes are a welcome bit of colour in our garden.
By the way, the birds that featured much on our French holidays were jays & a blackcap. The blackcap was the regular garden visitor once he discovered our food offerings that I mentioned in my blog a few days ago.
Jays seemed to abound in all the nearby woods. I've only seen them a couple of times in my life in this country, but we saw a couple most days in Provence. Their russet colouring, fluffy crests & bright blue wing flashes were a source of joy to me.
Oh, and by the way, after a quick visit to A&E, it was discovered that Fran has severely sprained her ankle. There's massive internal bleeding but nothing actually broken. She's spent most of this week resting it up, so it's dubious if she & Den will make it to the meal on Monday. i hope she does. It's not as though there's much walking involved & she is a very gregarious person who thrives in company.
1 comment:
We regularly have visits from goldfinches these days, ever since the teasel grew in our "wild" area last year. This year we have four established teasels and, regular topping up of our Nyger seed feeders seems to have ensured many returns from the goldfinches. May your garden be similarly blessed!
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