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Goldfinches by the dozen!!! Cheshire (1 Viewer)

David Smith

David Smith

Warrington Lancs
Our Goldfinches seemed to just disappear some months ago then suddenly (last week) they came back in GREAT NUMBERS-we get maybe 20 plus fighting over the 2 feeders and there seem to be at least 2 or 3 any time we look.
Any body else noticed this increase ?
(photo was in garden a few months ago)
 

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We only get them as flyovers at my house, but my father's house is a mere 200 yards away or so and he gets quite a few. When I was down there one day last week I counted 37. A marked increase on what he was getting and many of these birds are juveniles.
 
Yes we were down to about half a dozen and at begining of last week we had 30 arrived..mind you they are very hit and miss as we have a visiting Sparrowhawk in the garden.
 
DaveN said:
We only get them as flyovers at my house, but my father's house is a mere 200 yards away or so and he gets quite a few. When I was down there one day last week I counted 37. A marked increase on what he was getting and many of these birds are juveniles.
Click to expand...

Yes! many of ours are juvenile-----it must have been a good breeding season for whatever reason.
 
It certainly does appear to have been a good year for them. I recently had a flock (or is it a charm?) of 50+ Goldfinches and around 80% of them were juveniles.
 
I noticed high numbers in the spring and no doubt the weather over the summer has helped increase the seed production so breeding sucess was high. They must know i'm talking about them, I can hear a Goldfinch from my window as I type this.

CB
 
David Smith said:
Our Goldfinches seemed to just disappear some months ago then suddenly (last week) they came back in GREAT NUMBERS-we get maybe 20 plus fighting over the 2 feeders and there seem to be at least 2 or 3 any time we look.
Any body else noticed this increase ?
(photo was in garden a few months ago)
Click to expand...

Great picture btw :t:
 
Yes, David. A few weeks ago they were down to maybe 4 but since about 2 weeks ago we've noticed much bigger numbers - up to 16 at a time on and waiting for the sunflower hearts and thistle seeds.

Sandra
 
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Goldfinches can be late breeders, so I suspect folks are now noticing the juveniles more and more coming to garden feeders. I have been catching quite a few in the last couple of weeks ( I am a licenced ringer) and many of the juveiles are just starting their post juvenile moult suggesting they have recently fledged in the last month or so, whilst the adults to are in the throes of their post breeding moult. This is in contrast to most Greenfinches and Chaffinches, where adults and this years young have nearly completed their moult . Nice to the Goldfinches back at the feeders.
 
HughPulsford said:
Goldfinches can be late breeders, so I suspect folks are now noticing the juveniles more and more coming to garden feeders. I have been catching quite a few in the last couple of weeks ( I am a licenced ringer) and many of the juveiles are just starting their post juvenile moult suggesting they have recently fledged in the last month or so, whilst the adults to are in the throes of their post breeding moult. This is in contrast to most Greenfinches and Chaffinches, where adults and this years young have nearly completed their moult . Nice to the Goldfinches back at the feeders.
Click to expand...

Very interesting-thanks for that.:t:
 
Over 20 in my garden in North Leeds - dominating the 8 port sunflower feeder, and spilling over onto my seed feeders as well. They pretty well ignore the nyger feeder - sunflower hearts must be much tastier. About half of them are juveniles, and I think these are the third brood of the year. Tagging on to the juvenile goldfinches is a very young looking greenfinch, which follows them to our water bath.
 
Sunshine this afternoon, so I thought a photo would be useful.

"Room for a little one?"
 

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Lovely Goldfinch photo's.
We have more now as well, started with a pair last Winter, hadn't had any for several years before that, then they gradually told their friends & this week we have had 11. 5 are youngsters. Not such high numbers as some people, but it's great we have them at all. Some seem to prefer the niger, others sunflower hearts.
 
time of year...

David Smith said:
Our Goldfinches seemed to just disappear some months ago then suddenly (last week) they came back in GREAT NUMBERS-we get maybe 20 plus fighting over the 2 feeders and there seem to be at least 2 or 3 any time we look.
Any body else noticed this increase ?
(photo was in garden a few months ago)
Click to expand...


Looks like someone took a census briefly at the RSPB Discovery Centre at Fairhaven (Lytham) with apparent 'clouds of finches' over on 5 October

Fairhaven: 1,644 Chaffinch over, 243 Greenfinch over, 75 Goldfinch over,

http://www.fyldebirdclub.org/sightings.htm
 
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