'Super, Smashing, Great' – more from 'bullie'

Hours spent on my local patch have been rewarded with fleeting views of Mr and Mrs Bullfinch. Literally 3 hours a day (morning, lunch, evening time) nearly every day for the past month have resulted in perhaps two or three sightings – so I wouldn't rush over in the hope of a viewing unless you are prepared to sit and wait in the same location for six or seven hours in one session – but if you do, let me know and I'll gladly point you in the right direction.

The following images are the best I have managed so far recently (and sadly no sightings of the Grey Wagtails) ...

two bullfinch

male

female

male and female 

male

about the best it gets

bonding behaviour

Believe it or not there are two bullfinch in the first image (you will probably need to double-click on it to enlarge and then it isn't easy – but shows what you are up against) which surprised me*. The male bullfinch of course is a little easier to see with it's bright red front (2), the female a little more difficult (3); finding them both together is a bonus (4), but more often it is the male that is seen (5). Don't ask me how but two days later I managed to pick them up before they saw me and about the best it gets (6,7 and 8). As you can see the female was accepting Alder seed from the male and I can only surmise this is part of the bonding – it also suggests she may have popped out from her maternal duties to be fed before returning... which may suggest the possibility of greater activity and more sightings to come. Fingers crossed. Legs crossed. Everything crossed (contortionist)

*And I was surprised by the first image and included it because the male bullfinch was on the ground while the female sat close by, perched twelve inches (20cm) off the ground... I simply don't know what was going on. You'll note the adjacent footpath so it wasn't long before they were disturbed and I had no chance of better images.

and in case you were struggling with the first image –

double click to enlarge

and those of you old enough to remember the 1970's, the title is a reference to Jim Bowen and the TV programme 'Bullseye' (funnily enough a mate of mine used to work on that TV programme among others...)...and  I told you I live my life in other people's quotations!