Re: Brand new goldfinch babies

My goldfinches have produced another brood, fresh out of the nest yesterday I believe. They have been making such a racket they drowned out the starlings!

I haven't managed any photos of them begging and being fed, and the few photos I have are complete rubbish.

This is the best of a very bad bunch, showing mum with her earlier juvenile and one of her new babies.

Yep i was surprised this morning when two youngsters turned up causing a racket.

I had some last year in September, and also some baby greenfinches, but I was quite surprised to see these and it explains why my goldies have been coming singly to feed. I was accusing them of being Billy No Mates. LOL

LOL i'm just starting to get a few more now, i've been getting one or two but i'm now up to 6 lol.

It won't be long before the Scandinavian ones arrive, unless they are having better than normal weather over there.

Saw two goldies tonight for the first time for a month, have been wondering where they had got to and thought they were feeding on the thistle in the fields.   So they are likely to bring young now? must keep an eye out for them.    

That's where mine are Gaynor when you go over the fields there are loads of them

Hi Gaynor,

It sounds like they have been busy with a second brood and also eating the natural foods in the fields.

A certain percentage of our breeding goldies migrate to the continent in winter - mostly the females, even as far as Spain. They are replaced by incomers from more northerly parts such as Scandinavia. This means the ones you see in summer in your garden are not necessarily the same as the ones you see in winter.

Thanks sparrow, so that explains why they eat me out of house and home in the winter and ease off during the summer, certainly we see many more now than a few years ago, tho' that could be due to the feeding of sunflower hearts, which incidentally all the other birds have cottoned on to now, even the blackbirds!!

Lovely to see your photo Linda with three different aged goldfinches!  There seem to be an awful lot of chicks about at the moment.  I had a young goldfinch on my nyger feeder this afternoon and it was so tame it let me creep to within about six feet to take these photos.

I've so much to learn still - I didn't realise that they all started migrating to different parts of Europe.

Lovely pictures both.Don't they just look so odd with those wonderful wings and that dingy overcoat.

ChristineB

I've so much to learn still - I didn't realise that they all started migrating to different parts of Europe.

They don't just leave the UK to migrate, they just tend to go somewhere a bit warmer. It is possible your Nottinghamshire winter goldies arrive from further north in the UK, Scotland perhaps. They might be Lolly's summer ones!!

Those are beautiful photos by the way.

lovely pics, I've been missing our goldies, not really seen much of them since about June, but went on the moors at the weekend and we saw huge flocks of them, which quite cheered me up!