Today the medieval gold of the greenfinch returned again to the cone feeder and when it was ousted from the feeder by a starling, it came closer to the house, where a little gleam of sunshine made it glow.
A subsequent visitor was a vertical woodpecker – the large male working individual nuts out of the wire at the top of the cone. Once he had a nut, he would take it away to a branch higher up in the cherry tree – I could just see the occasional flash of red amidst the greenery – before returning to the feeder for another nut.
A group of eight to ten sparrows and siskins, with the occasional chaffinch hanger-on, worked the grass between the raids by jackdaws, ring doves and the fattest wood pigeon I have seen yet. Most of the ring doves were youngsters, to judge by their plumage and whilst they were harassed by the jackdaws and occasionally discovered that perching on the fence was a better option until they could eat in peace, meanwhile the mature female was seeing itself once again chased around the lawn by the male, dipping and bouncing after her.
thekitchensinkbirdwatcher 