On Sun, 28 Dec 2003 15:34:52 +0000 (UTC), "Franz Heymann"
wrote:


"martin" wrote in message
.. .
On Sat, 27 Dec 2003 22:08:17 +0000 (UTC), "Franz Heymann"
wrote:


"martin" wrote in message
.. .
On Fri, 26 Dec 2003 18:53:47 +0000 (UTC), "Franz Heymann"
wrote:


My wife and I have an inviolate arrangement that neither will ever
give
the
other any present, unless the prospective recipient sees it, and
approves
of
it before any money is spent.

My wife and I pick our own presents, sometimes we get extras as a
surprise. The bird house, bird feeder and a bag of bird seed were
presents from my son. I suppose I could use the bird seed as lawn
seed. After all the birds did eat most of the lawn seed before
somebody here suggested covering it with fleece.
Our garden is inundated with hungry green finches this year, I have
never seen so many before

Ditto, plus goldfinches

I think they are goldfinches my wife thinks they are green finches.
I am sure we called them yellow hammers, when I was a kid.

You are talking about three entirely separate species.
They are utterly non-confusable.

Goldfinches have an unmistakable red blotch over the whole face

so ours are not goldfinches

Yellowhammers have a bright yellow appearance

so have our greenfinches
BUT

Greenfinches are dull green with a yellow flash on the side

that's how they looked when viewed through a pair of binoculars.Viewed
with the naked eye only the yellow wing feathers were noticeable.


The likely visitors to bird tables are greenfinches and goldfinches.

They are green finches.

You could not mistake them for one another,

and, believe it or not, we had fieldfares within ten
yards of the front of the house.
The birds are costing us an arm and a leg in nuts, seeds and fatty cakes

I attached an old Compuserve CD to the top of the balls of fat to stop
the starlings eating the fat. Now we only have coal tits eating the
fat.

In the meantime most of the birds learnt to ignore the CDs, it took
one coal tit only three passes before it ignored a CD and started
eating again. The starlings are still a bit reluctant.

So much for the idea of hanging strings of Compuserve CDs from the
rigging to deter seagulls from crapping on your boat.
--
Martin