Feed

Here are some fun facts about national parks!!

“Diui” “giugiugiu” “ tswee” “dzweeeeee” “chp chp” “teu teu teu” “tooey” “chop-chop-chop” “too-eee” “dweeez” “chichichichichi” “jup, jup, jup” “chewlee”. These are some of the representations of the sounds of a greenfinch that I’ve found in bird books and on websites. The wheezy ‘dweeez’ is a sound I’ve been hearing more and more on my local Network routes, but one that was missing for a while. In the late 80s I hid under a blanket with a camera and tripod by my parents’ bird feeder and took snaps of the birds that visited - a lot of them were greenfinches. But by the time I came back to birdwatching after a couple of decades of gallivanting, they were not around. So much so, that I remember the excitement of my first sighting of one in recent years. Looking into it, it was Trichomonosis that caused them to disappear – a parasite-induced disease that affects the birds’ ability to eat. According to the BTO website, there was a decline of about 20% in regional breeding populations during 2006 – the year after the disease became prevalent. Ironically, it spread via uncleaned feeders put out by people who no doubt got great joy from their bird visitors – an article in the Guardian describes the greenfinch as being ‘almost loved to death’ by us. But they’re back, and I am seeing and hearing them everywhere. Olive-green, they have a stout bruiser look about them – other descriptions include ‘eye blackened as if it had been in a fight’, and ‘masked frown’. They look like they wouldn’t be taken down easily. I didn’t know about the male greenfinch display flight – an ‘exuberant Spring song flight’ from the treetops with slow wing-flaps and trills to entice the females. I've never seen this - another thing to look out for as the season unfurls.