There is a time when I'd have struggled to get excited about this image of a greenfinch. But that was then. Following years of decline, seeing, or in this case fist hearing, a greenfinch gladdened the heart. Following the arrival of a parasite based disease Trichomonosis in the summer of 2005, in some areas nearly a third of greenfinch disappeared, though it also affects chaffinch, house sparrow, siskin and dunnock. The greenfinch mournful song was at risk of becoming a memory in the bird watchers soul. Recently numbers have begun to rise although the disease is here to stay. Which is a joy as tonight I was in the garden just before dusk. I heard this single note repeated over and over again. There in the laburnum tree a greenfinch called out its contact call. Different to that which I'd hear in Somerset, but as birds learn their calls from their parents after birth, regional dialects occur. Another greenfinch was silently flitting about in the adjacent conifer. A perfect relaxing way to end the day before bed.
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