Goldfinches and Tits....

As a teenager I think I perhaps had a slight obsession with goldfinches. I don't remember seeing any in Glasgow, at the time they were more of a countryside inhabitant, in any case, my desire to see one remained unfulfilled and this obsession lead to an amusing prank, well amusing for me and Colin Dunlop anyway. We would interrupt our dreary Latin class by pretending there was a herd of goldfinches outside the classroom window. I would move to the side of the class that looked onto the garden, the teacher Grahame Dire Esquire as we called him, didn't have much control. I would leave it for a minute or two and shout excitedly to Colin, "Colin it's a herd of goldfinches" and he would dash across the class feigning excitement at the prospect, knocking chairs and tables out of his way. There never was a herd of goldfinches and there never will be, actually to be literal for a second. The collective term is a 'charm' of goldfinches. Collective terms rarely seem logical, more random. A flock of g

eese, a pod of dolphins,  a committee of vultures but charm works. Goldfinches are infinitely charming and having them in the garden daily as I do now thanks to a feeder that specifically attracts them is a treat. Worth waiting 25 years I’d say.
Now Tits, you say, they were less exotic, blue tits, in particular, also very charming were far more visible and always the first to arrive. The garden is dominated at the moment by the goldfinches and their brood and by lots of tits - the robin has gone into relative hiding and can be heard singing wistfully, an ominous sign that autumn is coming- blue, great, coal and another perhaps less well known and equally charming, the long-tailed Tit. They come and go, but the other night we had five at the suet feeder which was rather nice. The suet feeder has had a variety of visitors and is very popular, even the giant woodpigeon tries to have a go but risks falling off the branch (that'll learn it) but it's always nice to have a slightly less common guest. The Woodpecker last week, the long tailed tits this week. I wonder what the next surprise will be?