The Lincolnshire Bird Club

A redwing dropped into my garden for a short time at about 8.15 this morning, followed by a pair of bullfinches about 30 minutes later.

Neither of these events is unknown but they don't occur very often, either.

Regards
Martin Francis

Hi Martin

Both species are also uncommon in our garden, particularly Redwing.
Bullfinches are more likely to appear with us when the honeysuckle has berries on,
but we never see them on the feeders.
Has anyone noticed an increase in the numbers of Greenfinch in their garden this winter?
Pleasingly, we have more than last year, they are preferring sunflower hearts.

Roy

Hi Martin
We have also had a cock bullfinch in the garden over the past two weeks, eating honeysuckle berries. We had two pairs last year.
Also a male, and then a female blackcap last week. Mistle thrush singing for the first time this morning.
Sally

Hi All

Fortunately, we have had a pair of Bullfinches each morning for the past 10 or so days, they seemed to disappear last year, but a pair has returned this.

As to Greenfinches, I would say finch numbers are generally up. We seemed to have few finches last year, but so many more this. I wonder if this increase is due to people cleaning their feeders more regularly?

Andrew

We had a cock bullfinch on honeysuckle in the garden (Cleethorpes) at the end of December.

It was the first such sighting in 15 years.

Redwings have occasionally visited (for pyracantha berries) or Bramley windfalls but not for at least a couple of winters.

Last winter, we had a few visits from a female blackcap but not this year.

Siskin (1) with our goldfinches at our new garden feeding station ( N.Thoresby) Only the second one I have ever seen in the garden. The previous one appeared to be just passing through on its spring migration two years ago and didn't visit our feeders.

Always nice to have a Siskin in the garden Sally - we had a Lesser Redpoll on the seed feeder today,
it is many years since we last saw one here.

Roy

I am going to make you jealous Roy. Last Feb and March we had large numbers of lesser redpoll every day. This winter the first bird reappeared on Oct 26th then we didn't have another until two on Nov 11th. Since then we have had them every day except for four dates. The largest count has been 18 on Jan 4th. The numbers so far don't really compare with last winter but then we didn't start to get big numbers until the end of Jan. Our largest count was 64 on the remains of my lawn - eating the nyger that they scattered from the feeders. So far I have noted brambling on four occasions (usually one but two on Jan 4th) and siskin twice (one bird). Remarkable when you see our front which is the size of a postage stamp with one flowering cherry tree in it). As for greenfinch we get the odd one with a best count of seven. House Sparrows are a rarity and it is a few year now since I saw redwing in the trees the other side of the fence to my garden. When I get round to it I will post the numbers of redpoll seen (63 dates so far this winter)

I think it all depends on where you live Chris. We are not short of bird feeders containing various sorts of seed, but we are nearly a mile away from any significant woodland. For some reason Lesser Redpolls only visit very occasionally in the winter, although they do nest in our garden from time to time.
House Sparrows are regular here - we are getting at least 20 on a daily basis. They nest in the roof of our house - and in a box that I put up to try to attract Swifts. Tree Sparrows are more of a concern, usually regular in winter months, we have seen none at all this year.

Roy

Fantastic start to the day !! 8.30- 9.30 in our garden : Cock Reed bunting : Pair of bullfinches on honeysuckle : Male blackcap on suet feeder :
1 redwing but this was soon chased off our windfall apples by the 15 or so blackbirds feeding there. In addition, all our usual birds. Interestingly, in view of others comments, we have very few greenfinches this year. I've only seen the occasional single bird whereas most winters we have between four and nine regularly.
Sally

Three redwings in the garden at lunchtime today.
And just a note about greenfinches - have hardly seen any all winter,but they used to be regular in groups of about half a dozen!

Regards
Martin

Male sparrow hawk on garden fence at lunchtime today.

In a rush
Martin

4 Siskins and a Brambling on the feeders this morning. Also good to note that Tree Sparrow numbers are now into double figures, with 20+ of each of House Sparrow, Greenfinch and Chaffinch.
No further sign of Lesser Redpoll.

Roy