Ibhave A Lovely Pair Of Goldfinches

[Stargazer]

at my bird feeder at the moment and at last have seen a thrush. mNo sparrows though.

[mikesnook1]

hi stargazer,i live in plymouth and i've also noticed that their are not many house sparrows about this year,i've also not seen any swallows up to now, i wonder why these birds are in decline,could it be bird flu or something else? i expect we will never know unless somebody tells us.

[hellywelly4]

My goldfinches love sunflower hearts as well as the nyger seed. They really cheer me up when I see them, AND I saw a sparrow feeding a baby one this afternoon which was lovely. I'm near Sleaford in Lincolnshire.
Also, I've got a feeder attached to my kitchen window which has been found by the blue tits, and I stand at the back of the kitchen watching them have their dinner. It doesn't get much better than that!

[Clanad]

We have plethora of them this spring here in the western U.S. They've been described by a far better poet than me as "... a small explosion of sunlight when they take flight..." We get lot's of their cousins the Rose Finches as well...

[Stargazer]

Im,live in a rural area if Norfolk and never see house sparrows ever in my garden. I get lots of different tits, blackbirds, robins, nuthatches, finches, occasional thrush, goldfinches (pair). Haven't seen a wren for ages nor pied wagtails. Thirty years ago there were many more birds in the garden erspecially thrushes. It is a shame. I used to see woodpeckers (green and greater) on my birdfeeders in the past.

[FredPuli43]

Great! No bird feeders here; will have to wait for the thistles to seed!

No swallows here either and I've only seen one house martin, which is a bit ominous. No shortage of great tits, if anybody wants any :)

[murraymints]

Every sparrow in the world is in my garden !!! Along with a trillion others...can't keep them fed at the moment....

[FredPuli43]

And, Clanad, your goldfinch is not the same as ours; no great surprise there. The habits are similar and they look quite a bit alike.

[lady-janine]

we are so lucky and have both sparrows and dunnocks in the garden. the gold finches like to get on the side grass and we have two pairs of swallows back in the garage but there not so many of them just generally swooping around. blackbirds and robins but no thrushes. i think the farm cats are resoponsible for their decline. no blue tits or great tits yet either. i blame the rooks.

i usually feed them all the time but should i be doing that.

[hammerman]

you lucky lucky thing. We have some wonderful bidlife in the garden where im head gardener but never had goldfinches

We have the usual robins, blackbirds and song thrushes. Add some blue tits, longtail tits, great tits and coal tits, a few green finches, some wrens, a few greater spotted woodpeckers and a pair of goldcrests. But no goldfinches....which are my favourite.

growing some teasle for them so fingers crossed.

[lady-janine]

where are you hammerman. that is so many different ones. you are so lucky.

[Prudie]

Last Saturday I woke to see a stunning male sparrow hawk ripping a sparrow to pieces on my lawn, what do you call that? Ugly beauty?

[Clanad]

Thanks, Fred... here's ours:

http://animals.nationalgeographic.com/animals/birding/american-goldfinch/

[Clanad]

You weren't kidding when you said they were unlike, fred... I hadn't looked up the English versions... Wow! Totally different. Yours looks like a cross between our Rose breasted Grosbeak and Gold Finch...the previous seen here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:RosebreastedGrosbeak08.jpg

Thanks, BTW!

[hammerman]

@ Lady-Janine. Im in Brighton. Also have the occasional redwing in feb, there's black caps around apparently and a tree creeper has been spotted. Lots of greater spotted woodpeckers tapping away too at the moment.

But still no Goldfinches :-(