Photo-a-Day  (Friday, 15th March, 2019)

I'm not surprised the doves winged it Philip, for this little chap is ferocious in a duel for food.
Uniformed like proud sabre carrying dragoons, Carduelis carduelis will battle with anyone.

What a pretty bird! What beautiful colours. Lovely photo. xx

I love goldfinches. They love our sunflower hearts

Poor bird's been eaten out of house and home- no wonder he looks forlorn.

They don't come much prettier than that ..he's beautiful.

great photo of a great bird

By your shed Philip perhaps ?
Now , that is a story!
What’s in a man’s shed , and what in heavens name does he do in there for days on end ??.
It can’t be just for bird feed, pots and shovels can it ?
He closes the door , leaving the noise behind , then starts drilling and sawing (myself included ). The world of a man’s shed ?
Sorry Philip to expand your wonderful shot .

Lovely photo, beautifully coloured bird.

No problem Xpat, and also a fine query from yourself.
A man's shed? . . . Cor blimey!
A place of unbridled learning, perhaps. I'm now able to sharpen drill bits to a fine degree of accuracy on my £15 bench grinder, unfortunately; with much annoyance to the nesting Blue Tits.
Or a place of hoarded half-forgotten 'things', which sometimes make sudden un-expected appearances in the time-honoured way; Mind your . . . Ouch!
Or even a place of intellectual fermentation. I'd shown my young nephew how to correctly write-up, and then position labels onto their respective boxes before being told by him that there is only one 'T' in rivets.
Whichever, may Man's cave harbour those and many other similar pursuits, in the future.

Thanks Philip , Jack Hargreaves, what a man! The times I have stood back, having created harmony from chaos, wondering, did I actually need to use that one particular favourite screwdriver,as opposed to the box-full I already had to hand.
Tis, there, I find peace with myself..

I picked up some of Jack's 'Out of Town' dvds the other day. I had forgotten how superb this series was. Last night I was transfixed by 'Charcoal Burners'. This evening, after I've shoed some dray horses I'm going Grayling Fishing.
From Recuerdos de la alhambra to a hearty cheerio from the shed every second is perfect joy. Friends.. invest.

I remember the older men in Ince who would catch these birds for breeding. They were bred for their beautiful song and good money could be made for them. The method they used was to boil linseed oil until it caught fire which then turned into a thick sticky substance (bird glue) which was smeared onto branches or thick grass stalks etc. Younger decoy birds (callers) were used to call unaware birds down. This was known as tuttling and when a finch was caught it had been tuttled. I think it is illegal to do this now.

I am ashamed to say my dad used to catch these birds years ago to breed birds just for the song. I hated this but I was only a child and couldn't do anything about it. Quite a few men in our street did it. It seemed to be a common practice. My dad used to catch the birds where Gidlow Cemetry is now. He was chased once by a Bobby but got away on his bike. Thankfully it stopped when the housing in Scholes were demolished. He spent hours with those birds and would collect 'chickweed' for them and all the best seed. The birds were kept in an aviary of sorts in the back yard. There was always some chap or another calling to see the birds and he would go to the other men's houses swapping tips or even birds with one another- poor things. I don't recall money being exchanged though. It was only the finches he was interested in. I remember all the books with drawings and pictures of birds that he had as well. I'm so glad it doesn't happen nowadays - at least I hope not.