It's march and this means: a chance of getting Siskins in the garden! During this time of year it seems that they're largerly attracted to peanuts instead of their usual food from the alders and birches.. My dad mentioned he'd seen a male Siskin in the garden on friday morning. Saturday morning I got out of bed early to check if there would be Siskins! And indeed, I saw no less than three birds foraging on my peanut feeder, very cool! I had only ever ringed two Siskins (March 2011, first ringing session ever in the garden) so I wanted to ring some more. I put up my net and fairly soon I caught three Siskins. Because I knew I had ringed three Siskins I could count how many other unringed birds visisted the garden. I came up to a total of six. At one single time there were about 10 present, but only in the high tree in the back garden, not near the feeders.
Siskin (Carduelis spinus), adult male
Siskin (Carduelis spinus), adult male; everything adult type, primaries, secondaries, tertails, greater coverts, alulas etc..
Siskin (Carduelis spinus). 2cy female, note the four unmoulted outer greater coverts, unmoulted tertails and secondaries etc. Tail was moulted. Not so pretty as the adult male..
Yesterday I bought some more peanut nets (I want them in the garden as long as possible haha). I hung two in the garden. Right now, while I'm typing this posts there are up to eight birds feeding on the peanuts, incredible!
I also took a little effort to try and photograph them. This is the result:
Siskin (Carduelis spinus), 2cy female; note the unmoulted greater coverts & tertails
Siskin (Carduelis spinus), 2cy male; note the unmoulted greater coverts (inner two/three moulted)
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