Wildlife -Winter 2008

[Carol Shaw]

I often pick up wee birds that have flown into our 'anything but clean' sitting room windows. I just pop them somewhere to recover - often t he potting shed which they can easily get out of and the furry girls can't get into

I do wonder why suddenly this winter we are seeing Goldfinches in the garden every day whereas in previous years they were very occasional visitors - not that I am complaining! The sight of a couple of Gold Finches a Siskin and a Chaffinch all trying to sit on one peanut feeder at the same time is quite amusing... and yes we have several feeders but one is especially popular   

[mark smyth]

hard frost = seeds frozen in the ground and seed heads. If you want to keep them all year try feeding them with nyger/niger is a goldfinch feeder

[Maggi Young]

hard frost = seeds frozen in the ground and seed heads. If you want to keep them all year try feeding them with nyger/niger is a goldfinch feeder

A special feeder and nyjer seed wasn't enough to tempt the Goldfinches to spent more time with us.... what it did do was amaze us with the discovery that the germination rate for spilled nyjer seed in Aberdeen is around 400 per cent!!!    Never seen growth like it..... just amazing.

[mark smyth]

well I dont think Goldies are comfortable with lots of cover. Sparrowhawks might do a smash and grab on them. Carol's garden is nice and open for quick getaways. Goldfinches use Bob Gordons garden but dont use Margarets. Both have Bullies.

[Stephenb]

In this part of the world, Goldfinches (Stillits after the sound in Norway) are a rarity and don't breed this far north in Norway. About 6-7 years ago, I discovered a small flock (about 10) feeding on burdock (Arctium spp) along the edge of a small field just outside our village and this small flock has returned most years since. I was already cultivating Burdock as a vegetable and after that I encouraged it to go wild in the wild part of my garden. This worked as planned and 2 years ago they were regular guests in my garden... Then last year they turned up again and in late January they discovered my bird feeder (sunflower seeds) and the whole flock were regular visitors for a couple of months. I had several birders visit to see them as well as a couple of photographers. This resulted in an article in the regional birding mag (picture by Morten Vang). This winter the flock once again turned up in the garden in November, but this time they went straight for the feeder, ignoring the burdock seed (even though the plants were laden). However, they disappeared again and I haven't seen them since...perhaps later in the winter.

My theory is that these birds are from the breeding population in southern Finland rather from further south in Norway. The Scandinavian population has been expanding in recent years, particularly at the north of its range.

Here's a little video of a Goldfinch feeding from a sunflower head...

[TC]

Beautiful picture of a charming little bird.  Here in Scotland, I feed them on sunflower hearts or niger seed.  They come for a few days then disappear only to return a few weeks later.  I prefer it this way as they must be getting food in the wild and will not have to depend on garden feeders.

[Carol Shaw]

hard frost = seeds frozen in the ground and seed heads. If you want to keep them all year try feeding them with nyger/niger is a goldfinch feeder

Even now with the frost gone they are still the most common bird to come and feed at the peanuts (we have several feeders hanging in the garden). This is the first year in a long while that we have not put out sunflower hearts doesn't seem to have bothered the birds at all! There was so much wastage from the sunflowers and the mess was horrific! We do get a sparrow hawk fly through the garden on a fairly regular basis looking for a meal occasionally he is successful but not too often. The wee birds are also wise to the antics of our two furry predators and it is rare for either of them to catch a bird at this time of year. We need to plant a berried bush or two away from the house to try and entice the wax wings.

[Michael J Campbell]

The first Gold Crest of the winter visited a very wet and windy garden today.

[mark smyth]

Here are some colour mutations of goldfinches


Stephen you goldfinches are a different race that ours. We call them northern goldfinches. They are larger than ours as are your bullfinches

[Maggi Young]

Mark, I believe those colour mutations are as a result of captive breeding and perhaps hubridisation, are they not? One would not find such birds in nature, unless VERY rarely???

Michael, how interesting that you only have our most favourite of garden birds, the Goldcrest, Regulus regulus    as a winter visitor... we are fortunate enough to have them live here all the year.... they are a particular delight with their little voices, flitting almost invisibly around the place.  Tough to get a good photo because they are so small and quite shy.... and with our wondows being so grubby, I have never managed a decent picture through glass

[mark smyth]

They do rarely occur in the wild but are targets for sparrowhawks. Those that happen in captivity and then bred is such a way to fix the colour.

Here's a French Goldfinch singing. It's quite different to ours. Birds across Europe have different accents just like we do.

Amazing but true goldcrests  come to the UK from northern Europe to spend the winter.

[ashley]

And do our breeding goldcrests stay put or migrate in winter Mark?

[mark smyth]

How would you like the red siskin coming to your nut feeders?

[mark smyth]

Ashley, our goldcrests stay and that's why they have population crashes during very hard weather.

[mark smyth]

The second part of "Swarm" is on tonight on BBC at 9pm. It features bats leaving a cave. My guess is it's Bracken Cave in Texas home to 20 million female Mexican free-tailed bats. I've been there.