If You Build It, They Will Come

Seeing a pair of Goldfinch in the area I decided to attract them into the garden. I had seen them on the neighbour's TV aerial but not in our trees. Everybody said nyjer seed was the secret so I made a trip to our local bird food suppliers and bought a large bag of nyjer and a special feeder. They had some very fancy stainless steel feeders but I opted for a simple one to start with hoping that the birds would be more interested in the contents rather than the attractiveness of the feeder.

I filled the feeder and hung it in what I though would be a suitable spot and after a couple of days was just popping in the kitchen to put the kettle on when I was delighted to see two Goldfinches using the feeder.

I got a couple of shots through the open kitchen door but I did not want to disturb them on their first visit.

After a short while they were disturbed by a Collared dove that had totally ignored the feeder on previous visits but today must have thought it was missing out on something.

For a moment as the feeder swung from one side to the other I thought it was going to give way but it held and the dove decided that either it did not like nyjer seed or it was too much like hard work and flew off.

Hopefully the Goldfinches will return on a regular basis and I will be able to get some better photos.