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Linnets
need seeds |
8.05.1999
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Michael Woods |
It is amazing how
dandelions can flower and set seed in the lawn almost before
the mower has been put away. The compensation is that they
may attract seed-eating birds, usually goldfinches or
bullfinches. This morning I was delighted to find a pair of
linnets pecking at the dandelion clocks. Linnets are
uncommon visitors to gardens and this is first time I have
seen them in mine.
I have a problem with
linnets because I am partly colour-blind and have difficulty
in seeing the red of the male's plumage. Linnets are pretty
nondescript birds and the male is coloured only during the
breeding season, but my visual impairment makes
identification even harder. However, the sun is shining
today and, with the aid of binoculars, I could actually see
the crimson on the crown and breast, and even the faint
chestnut on the back.
Until about a century ago,
linnets were kept as cagebirds for their musical twittering
and whistling song. They were trapped in such huge numbers
that the population went into a decline. Yet this was
nothing so drastic as the slump in numbers that has taken
place over the last two decades. The seeds of farmland
weeds, especially fat hen and chickweed, are an important
food for linnets but patches of weedy ground have become
progressively rare on intensively cultivated farms. The
result is that linnets have been starving at the end of
winter when the supplies of seeds run out. Unlike
chaffinches and greenfinches they have not been able to seek
refuge in gardens.
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