Bullfinch

Today's the day ........................... for the exotic

Mr and Mrs Bullfinch paid us a visit today - and as they are not frequent visitors to our garden, we got very excited.

There was a time back in the 1950s when the bullfinches' spring diet of the buds from fruit trees caused significant damage for the fruit-growing industry.  A single bullfinch can remove 30 or more buds in a minute - and almost every grower had little option but to trap bullfinches during the winter and spring.  Many growers in well-wooded districts caught more than a thousand birds annually.  Gradually from the mid 1970s, bullfinches became scarcer again and the trapping ceased.

Mrs Bullfinch (shown below) may well have a fruit bud in her beak, but we're ok about that.  It was just a bit of a treat to see them both ..........................