Yeee ha! At last I've got a Goldfinch! (1 Viewer)

songbird6666 · Mar 18, 2004

I'm beside myself with excitement! It's bucketing down with rain here, so I thought I'd come online whilst I eat my lunch, very unusual for me to touch the computer in the daytime. Anyhow, apart from my main feeding area down the side of my garden, I have a couple of feeders attached to the back fence which is behind my living room, its about 12feet away. I seem to have lost the mass flock of starlings this week, (relieved to say the least, costing me a fortune) anyhow, I was only thinking this morning, I'll take them down now, nothing has touched much out of them for a couple of days. I just looked up out of the window as something caught my eye, and there was a greenfinch on the sunflower hearts, and what I thought was another one or a siskin hovering, wanting to get a piece of the action. I put me specs on (!) and hallelujah, it was my first ever ever goldfinch! After two and a half years of trying in this garden, and two years in my previous one, which is less than half a mile away, the first time I have ever seen one in this village. Sorry to have gone on, but I am elated. My soup has gone cold now!

digi-birder · Mar 18, 2004

Well done! They are lovely birds to have in the garden - we have about 20 that hang around the sunflower and niger seed feeders. Never had any in our gardens before this house.

Wait till he tells his friends and then you will have trouble with them eating all the food!

pduxon · Mar 18, 2004

Nice one! been for a walk to "blow the cobwebs" away and saw a Goldfinch out the back of the office. Lovely little bird.

Gate · Mar 18, 2004

Know the feeling: a couple of goldfinches passed through my garden about three times more than a year ago, and I kept putting out niger seed in hopes of attracting them back. We've had a pair coming regular as clockwork every morning for nearly three weeks now, and they are such cool birds. They show not the slightest interest in the niger, though - they go straight to the sunflower seed/peanut nib/hemp seed mix every time and stay there, one on each perch, for about ten minutes until they have eaten their fill, then off they go until the next morning.

songbird6666 · Mar 18, 2004

I think it must be fate - the very day that I received my latest edition of The Bird Table - and what is on the cover - yep a beautiful Goldfinch! I think I may have two birdies too, this afternoon, another one was there, and it seemed much, much brighter coloured, the yellow in the wings was dazzling, but unless it was the same one once he had dried out! The one at lunchtime was a bit bedraggled to say the least, but the sun appeared thankfully.

songbird6666 · Mar 22, 2004

Just a quick update - I definitely have a pair (well two anyway) And at last, my niger seed is being sampled, only briefly though, they are certainly more interested in the peanuts and sunflower hearts.

Den · Mar 22, 2004

Nyger seed and sunflower hearts were the key for me. They act as a Goldfinch magnet! Never had one in the garden before! I was well chuffed.

Gate · Mar 23, 2004

"Our" pair of goldfinches still don't show any interest in the niger feeder, so when I refilled the main seed feeder, I put some niger in the mix. Let's see what that does....

Bill@dwp · Mar 23, 2004

Last November I went to the NW Birdfair and bought a bag of niger seed and a nice feeder to put it in. Hung it up the next morning and there is stayed untouched until last month when I noticed the level was actually starting to go down a little. Then a few days after during the afternoon I noticed a Goldfinch feasting all to himself.
He continues to come around the same time each day.
Over the last few weeks the Greenfinches are turning up as well but they only seem keen on the sunflower hearts
At this rate I'll have just finished the bag of niger in time to get a new one at this years birdfair

Viv · Mar 23, 2004

Bill@dwp said:
Last November I went to the NW Birdfair and bought a bag of niger seed and a nice feeder to put it in. Hung it up the next morning and there is stayed untouched until last month when I noticed the level was actually starting to go down a little. Then a few days after during the afternoon I noticed a Goldfinch feasting all to himself.
He continues to come around the same time each day.
Over the last few weeks the Greenfinches are turning up as well but they only seem keen on the sunflower hearts
At this rate I'll have just finished the bag of niger in time to get a new one at this years birdfair

I spotted my first goldfinch in the garden the other weekend..then nothing, then last Monday morning there were two of them in the ceanothus tree. They came back Tuesday and Wednesday but I haven't seen them since - I have sunflower hearts and niger seeds out but they haven't taken any notice as far as I can see. Hope they come back, they are such pretty birds

Nigel · Mar 31, 2004

Always looked wishfully at these Goldfinch visitor reports. At last we can join the club! After three months waiting a Goldfinch arrived feeding on the niger seeds this morning! Last week a male siskin was the first bird we'd seen eating the seeds. To top that a couple of greenfinch called by as well. Hoping they spread the word and bring their friends. Snapped a quick pic before he left.

helenol · Mar 31, 2004

We normally have up to 15 in the garden. I feed them a hi-energy no mess mix, which they seem to enjoy very much indeed.

Nigel · Mar 31, 2004

OK, now I'm jealous! Our solitary chap returned with his greenfinch mates while we had lunch as a consolation. Hope we can build up our numbers as time goes on. Great picture!

songbird6666 · Apr 5, 2004

Quick update - I now have four, the more the merrier!

songbird6666 · Apr 8, 2004

Here I am again! I know you are all bored with this, but I couldn't believe my eyes earlier - EIGHT!! They seem to be eating anything I have hanging too, including one on a fatball, the sunflower hearts, peanuts and niger are the most popular though, they are even feeding on the ground picking up spillage, and at two of my feeding stations - I keep having to rush between my lounge and kitchen to see if there are even more!!

On a sadder note, I was so upset this morning to find a little dead male siskin crouching behind my dustbins outside the back door. I had been so thrilled to have seen two pairs for the first time ever, only had one male and two females before then. Poor little soul, he hadn't flown into the window from the position he was in, and couldn't see anything wrong with him, such a shame to have survived the winter and then to die now when the best part of his life is to come. Nature is very cruel isn't it. :C

pduxon · Apr 8, 2004

nope not bored at all! jealous though

Geoff Brown · Apr 9, 2004

I started with one so installed a small niger seed feeder as an experiment and now have up to four every day

boyinthebush · Apr 15, 2004

Are goldfinches more likely to pop up at this time of year? I was out on my usual dog walk this morning behind our house (mainly fields and hedgerows) which usually reveals lots of tits, sparrows, robins, blackbirds etc but rarely a finch of any kind and I've never yet seen a Goldfinch out there until this morning! So yahoo indeed!

All I have to do now is tempt it into the garden

Elizabeth Bigg · Apr 15, 2004

I put up a niger feeder last November, and within a couple of days I had two goldfinches - the number increased and when I added a second feeder the maximum reached was 19 - until the siskins arrived, and took over from them.

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