At last, an unexpected visitor.

[Reader]

I was at my computer this morning when Ros shouted "hey John, come and look at these". I rushed outside with my bins and looked at a tree in a garden about ten houses away. 5 Siskins were filicking about for about 5 minutes until a band of maruading Blue Tits interrupted them. They have now dissapeared but I never thought in my wildest dreams would I ever see such a bird close to my garden.

There is hope after all.

[monkeyman]

Nice one, John!

[IanF]

Congratulations John. We had them in the garden last Spring feeding on the peanuts, but none so far this year. I know they are around as we saw about a dozen at a park nearby last week.

[songbird6666]

I had a pair of siskins here in my garden all of last spring, summer and then they disappeared about October. Weird, I thought they were supposed to be winter visitors. However, saw them (or another pair maybe) back last week for the first time. They are far tamer than the tits, and the male will stay on the peanut feeder right till I am virtually able to touch him. Have you tried feeding them to encourage them away from the neighbours? I find they will only feed from the red plastic feeder, won`t touch green/wire ones.

[Reader]

Unfortunately we have to stop feeding our birds for a while as we have a rat infestation. We are awaiting to see what happens after the poison we have had to put down takes effect.

The other problem is that where we live we get such little birdlife in our gardens that is is why it came as such a shock when we saw these Siskins a few yards away from us.

[MikePearson]

Hi John,

Congrats on the Siskins, I have never had them in the garden, even when I had a garden. Still I soon will have!

I'll lend you my air rifle. It'll give you something to do when the birds are away getting there brecky elswhere. Dawn and dusk is best but they can turn up any time of day.

Cheers, Mike.