A "herd" of Goldfinches....

In Gilbert White’s day, Goldfinches were almost certainly a bird of the countryside and not the cities. Today, there’s six of them, two adults and four young on my lawn. Now, there weren’t so many cities in the 18^th century, of course, but the only time you were likely to see a goldfinch in the city would be in a cage, their pretty colours and voices charming our ancestors with their slightly different moral code in regard to domestic pets and many other forms of domesticity, for that matter. I actually saw some goldfinches in a cage in Spain a few years ago and was rather shocked, but is it any worse than having a budgie in a cage? The only difference is that budgies are not native birds so our only experience of them is in a cage. Either way, Goldfinches give far more pleasure out of a cage.

Now the reason they were primarily birds of the country was due to diet. They like seeds. Seeds such as thistle seeds and from other plants of fields and waste ground. These days intensive farming and the like have ensured that such food sources are more likely to be found in cities, railways lines etc. than farmland. Goldfinches are a common sight, certainly in London, I see them more than Chaffinches or Greenfinches, a reverse of my experience as a birder in Glasgow in my youth. In fact, I don’t think I ever saw one, this lack or yearning, perhaps the reason for my inventing a game, whereby my friend Colin Dunlop would violently interrupt our Latin class by pretending to share my enthusiasm. I would move over the side of the class that looked out onto gardens, I would shout to Colin that I’d just seen a “herd” of goldfinches – it’s actually a “charm” - and he would shout “where” and run across the room to spot these imaginary birds, leaving desks and chairs in his wake. Very productive that Latin class. Anyway, I digress, the other factor is of course, the human factor. In Britain we like to feed the birds - rather than putting them in cages -  and Goldfinches take advantage with great enthusiasm. Whoever the bright spark is that designed the Goldfinch feeder, he or she is very bright. Probably a he, that’s not sexism, just that I don’t think any woman capable of such extreme geekism.  The slits in the feeder, exactly fit their bills that they traditionally use to extract seeds from plants.  Thus, essentially mimicking, ergonomically, their natural feeding pattern on a plant. Who had the time to think that up? Within a couple of days of me putting this feeder up, the Goldfinches had arrived. How did they know? Amazing.

Anyway the fact that they are feeding on my lawn is what inspired this article. You see, I want this garden to be a natural food source for the birds, not merely an artificial one. So the fact that they‘re using the lawn rather than the feeder is very interesting. There’s no thistles there, sadly. I like Thistles, must the Scot in me, but there’s clover and another little purple flower. This is great, the clover is also very popular with bees, though many have suffered from the heatwave and have dried out but some are going strong. The clovers that is. Bees can suffer in the heat too, BTW, keep an eye out.

Elsewhere, the yellow rose has suddenly burst into life again from no-where, the wild brambles are coming and the tomatoes are still green but this warm sun should continue their metamorphosis. It’s all wunderbar, not Wonderbra as my spellcheck attempted to convince me! Not that there’s anything wrong with a Wonderbra.           

Finally, no takers yet for my bee apartment yet but they do say it’s a difficult time of year for the property market.     

Anyway, best summer in five years, long may it continue but a little bit of rain wouldn’t go amiss. At night too when we’re sleeping if you’re listening, Ming the Merciless…