The delight of goldfinches

Bomble was very restless all morning, which Woodpeckers thinks was his being aware of the imminent solstice. Me, I think it is full moon fever. He has been with me all morning sitting on my desk or beside me on a chair round the dining table. Earlier still he wouldn't leave his perch on the edge of the bath even when I had left the room.

The sun has been shining brightly, and delightfully to my mind, and Bomble wandered around finding new positions to sit in where he could soak up some rays. He even sat on the dining room table as I was trying to eat my lunch. Together we watched the birds on the feeders just outside the door and he didn't get too excited by their constant comings and goings until I opened the door. I wanted to take pictures without having to penetrate the hazy double-glazing of the doors, but the birds seemed to notice and kept away, probably because they could see Bomble.

At one point I heard some loud bird screeching from high up in the sky. I went out side the door and within a a few seconds saw a very large gull being harried by a large blackish coloured bird. They went round and round swooping about and trying to scrap with each other. I think the other bird was a type of buzzard, although its tail feathers reminded me of a kite. The gull was also unusually big and I wonder if it had come inland for protection from the storms of last night. We are only a few miles from the sea and the Cotswold hills probably do provide a relatively safe haven although the other birds may be rather forbidding. The storm certainly affected us as a loose trellis which I hadn't tied down had flown a round and smashed a pane of our special greenhouse, which is very annoying/expensive! A section of old wooden garden fence has also been badly battered and has come away from its supporting post and it looks like we might have to replace it. I ought to have a look at our roof tiles too, methinks.

Although it clouded over after I'd eaten, I was particularly pleased when a few goldfinches came to eat at this feeder rather than the ones further down the garden. I do so love their colours, their camaraderie and the sound of a charm of them chattering away together. They also seem much less fearful than other small garden birds being quite happy to sit on the perches of the feeder to eat their seeds in situ, rather than fly away to a nearby tree for safety. This blue tit seemed to be rather annoyed, trying to hurry them up and get them to move off the perch, as the seed supply had gone down below the two topmost perches. I will have to replenish them more regularly to keep them all happy.