A charming Goldfinch

It was meant to be a quiet day. We didn't leave the house and whilst Tricia finished off her first piece of weaving - Christmas presents soon to be sorted out for all - I had my nets open and indeed put up two more.
Things went peacefully until suddenly I got into a flock of tits and found 36 birds in one net at one moment. They were quickly extracted and processed but extracting Blue Tits and Great Tits is never too relaxing.
The ringing highlight of the day was the Goldfinch pictured above. Going back to one of my well-worn themes, it was the collective noun for Goldfinches that first made me become interested in them. A charm of Goldfinch is just right - pretty birds with a bubbling gentle song that are always charming. Sadly I only ringed the one today rather than the whole charm.
As for tits perhaps the collective noun ought to be a pecking of tits. They always manage to find that little bit of tender skin by a nail - hangnail is the proper term I think - and twist it several times.
After the surfeit of the afternoon, two ringing friends from Portugal visited in the evening and attempts were made to catch winter thrushes, owls and woodcock, all it has to be said with no success. It was still however good to catch up and to talk of possible projects in the future.