Serins & Siskins

January has been very hectic, from the time we dropped Crevette off on New Year's Eve, driving to England the next day to arriving back here on the 17th January, via snow, ice, fog and two 3-day courses.

Then David & Hazel arrived and we felled 9 trees, cleared up the loose foliage and chopped the rest up for logs before they left on the 26th; true friends indeed!

The bird numbers took some time to build up, but now we have 50 or more assorted birds, eating both from the feeders and on the ground. By far the biggest numbers are Serins, Siskins and Goldfinches.

Both the Serins & Siskins are yellow striped birds, typical small finch size and quite difficult to tell apart. The male Siskin has a pronounced black cap with bright yellow under the cap and above the eye, so he can be easily identified!

The Goldfinch, with the distinctive red markings on the face is a beautiful finch and probably the eseasiest to pick out.

We have smaller numbers of Chaffinches & Greenfinches and today, for the first time this year, we have seen a female Hawfinch; we hope it's the pair we had last year!

Also on the feeders we get Nuthatches and Spotted Woodpeckers and our resident pair of Collared Doves. Around the garden we have a lone male Blackbird, the occasional Wagtail and Jackdaws.

During the cold weather the buzzards spend more time on perches, presumably as there are no thermals. We frequently pass one on the way into or back from Mollans. Not shy at all, but glares at us as we pass.

Coming back from Beaumont last Tuesday we saw a large raptor, bigger than a buzzard, which then decided to hover, which makes it pretty certain to be a Short-toed Eagle.

Roll on March!