Then there was a little greenfinch, just fledged, fluttering along the ground, and it seemed quite possible to catch it, till it managed to flutter under the blackberry bush.
I saw it first, looking after the greenfinch, and she sat on th' nest."
Another finch that is seen less regularly these days is the
greenfinch, though Les adds that a pair of
greenfinches have been visiting his garden after an absence of seven or eight years.
However, in recent days I have been hearing the prolonged "wheezing" or reeling of a solitary
greenfinch. Not so long ago,
greenfinches were among the commonest of garden birds hereabouts but in recent years they have all but disappeared.
He also targeted two other homes on the estate, on
Greenfinch Road and Blackcap Close, earlier that morning.
I may have seen them on a couple of feeders at nature reserves, but the last time I really recall a
greenfinch was about 15 years ago.
It occurs most often in pigeons and finches: in the last decade its has caused the
Greenfinch population to crash.
It also proved to be a good year for the
greenfinch after a five per cent rise in sightings, a welcome sign for a species that has undergone a 60 per cent decline in sightings since the first survey in 1979.
Greenfinch numbers have been hit over the last decade by the disease Trichomonosis, which has also been documented in other birds such as chaffinches.
A delicious treat for tits,
greenfinch and, possibly, the great spotted woodpecker.
One of the biggest surprises was the return of the
greenfinch after years of decline due to the pervasive trichomoniasis disease.
If this was to be a realistic Vietnamese
Greenfinch chase as opposed to a mere wild goose chase, I had to put in the homework.
