Goldfinches

Monday, 27th December 2004, South Yorkshire
Wild West Yorkshire nature diary

At the feeding station behind the Old Moor RSPB reserve visitor centre a large flock (at least 100, I'd guess) of tree sparrows are descending on the feeders along with numerous greenfinches.

The feeding flocks seem to come and go in waves; suddenly they'll all head back into the treetops but I don't spot any cue - such as a passing sparrowhawk - to trigger the movement.

This leaves a small charm of goldfinches (left; charm is the traditional the collective noun) on the niger seed feeder. These thin black seeds seem to be too small for the tree sparrows and greenfinches to manipulate in their bills. We don't get goldfinches visiting the bird table at home, although they do go for teasel heads by the pond, so perhaps a niger seed feeder would be worth a try.

With most of the water iced over there isn't much to see from the other hides. It's only the deeper lagoon that remains open and that is busy with ducks but, understandably, the hide overlooking it is packed with bird watchers. I'll come back to draw when there's a thaw.

I drew more here last year, as you can see from the link below.

Richard Bell, richard@willowisland.co.uk