There were a pair of wide-eyed goldfinches in the greengage tree this morning, with crisp and brightly coloured plumage, red and gold but with none of the white buttons that I associate with their adult tailcoats. Their tentative approaches to the hanging feeders and the impunity with which they then plunged down to the grass between two wood pigeons seemed to speak to their inexperience. When the pigeons loomed over them, they flew up to the cherry tree and I did not see them again.
The female woodpecker did appear, in early morning and as the light faded, she dug assiduously into the nuts at the bottom of the cone, whilst a male blackbird claimed the patch of grass below to scavenge the crumbs.
thekitchensinkbirdwatcher 