Do you know what most people who arrive at this blog accidentally are actually LOOKING for, according to the search terms?
Go on. Guess. Take a wild swoop at it.
Gretchen Stevens? Nope.
Moira-Brain-the-Size-of-a-Planet-(and-an-ego-to-match)-Briggs? Nope.
Healing? Nope.
Complementary Care? Nope.
Try ‘Goldfinches’ …
Once long ago in a blogpost far, far away I wrote a post about what aggressive little sods goldfinches are and postulated that their cute little faces were red so that the blood wouldn’t show.
Here – to refresh your memory – it is: Goldfinches.
Ever since then, the goldfinch groupies have been beating a path to my door.
So, in order to keep them amused (Hi guys!) I’ll tell you all that I did the RSPB’s Big Garden Bird Watch today. I waited until the garden was alive with feathered fiends friends, put the food out, drew back the curtains, pulled up a chair and waited patiently. Nothing. Every single one of them had vanished.
Now you MIGHT say it was because I startled them, but you need to know that I have nurtured the country’s most cocky, assertive birds. If the food isn’t out on time, they’re kicking in the front door. When I DO go out and feed them, they’re virtually perching on my head and ripping the stuff from my hands. Trust me – they are NOT shy. THIS is how I know they were doing it deliberately. It’s great isn’t it? I bankrupt myself buying enough birdfood to feed a small developing nation and – when I really want them to strut their avian stuff – what do the ungrateful little buggers do? Right. Pull a fade.
I did, however see four goldfinches.
They were, of course, chiefly engaged in trying to rip each other’s wings off.

2 comments
Comments feed for this article
January 28, 2009 at 11:33 pm
rosierae
One summer, many years ago, I was alone in the house when I heard a very loud bang. I almost jumped out of my skin. Then I looked for the source of the sound and saw a goldfinch lying unconscious on the terrace. It must have crashed onto the French window, poor bird. I thought it was dead and was about to open the door when it began to move, so I stayed still and observed it behind the curtain. It looked dizzy, turned a bit its pretty head and all of a sudden, took flight and flew up to the trees. It’s incredible that it wasn’t even hurt after such a violent collision.
January 29, 2009 at 9:19 am
Moira
Hi Rosie!
No-one’s yet worked out quite WHY birds do that … the most popular theory is that they can see the sky in the glass. Whether or not they survive depends on the angle and velocity at which they hit … a head-on collision at speed will usually break their necks … but often, they just sit there looking boss-eyed for a minute before fluttering off to recover in a nearby bush …