The first time a siskin (grønnsisik) decided to pay me a visit, found yesterday inside the house (a young bird)! 
Tag Archives: Grønnsisik
The Birds
Over the last couple of days there’ve been large numbers of birds in the garden making me think of Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds, although there have been fortunately no casualties as far as I know. I try to limit the amount of bird food I put out (as its production isn’t good for birds) and it’s good to see that most species are still eating natural food.
This winter there’ve been reports from all over the county of unusual numbers of overwintering bramblings (bjørkefink) with flocks up to 300 birds recorded. I’ve had smaller flocks of 20-30 for some time, but yesterday they were everywhere in the garden and at least 140 birds were present, a new winter record for Malvik kommune! The films below show them both at the bird feeder, feeding on rowan berries (eating the seed and discarding the flesh) and also on the ground perhaps feeding on birch seed?
Apart from that there was a sizeable flock of some 60 waxwings (sidensvans) on guelder rose / krossved (Viburnum opulus) and hawthorn (hagtorn) , 11 bullfinches (dompap), 50 house sparrows (gråspurv), 6 goldfinches (stillits) still mostly on burdock seed, 16 siskins (on birch seed), 6 greenfinches (grønnfink), 2 hawfinches (kjernebiter) seen on plum stones and rowan berries, a single robin (rødstrupe), a couple of fieldfares (gråtrost) on apples and hawthorn, a great spotted woodpecker (flaggspett) and great and blue tits both establishing territories now. In addition, a flock of 500-600 jackdaws (kaie) fly over to the roost every evening.
Bramblings with a hawfinch:
Bramblings with a hawfinch feeding on rowan seed (at the end, both birds are seen to discard the flesh). A greenfinch was also feeding on rowan.
Bramblings on the ground (feeding on birch seed?)
Large flock of bramblings at the bird feeder:
Nervous blackcap on apple
A male blackcap (munk) in the garden feeding nervously on an apple that a fieldfare (gråtrost) has been guarding attacking any bird that gets near.
…and then demonstrating that SIZE MATTERS as Herr Blackcap (munk) meets Hr. Hawfinch (kjernebiter) with guest appearances by Hr. Siskin (grønnsisik) and Hr. Brambling (bjørkefink)…..and there’s a finale!
Goldfinches and Burdock
I grow burdock (borre) in the garden both as a vegetable but also for the birds. Goldfinches / stillits (still relatively rare in my area) eat almost exclusively the seeds of this plant in winter. This year I cut down a few of the plants and placed them in a large pot of earth right in front of the kitchen window…and 4 birds discovered it today. How they avoid the burrs attaching to them is a mystery….
Some of the seed burrs had fallen to the ground in a storm a week ago. This video starts with siskins feeding next to the window on birch seeds:
Siskins dining on the roof
It was fun this morning watching a flock of up to 80 siskins (grønnsisik) with a few house sparrows (gråspurv) feeding on birch seed that had fallen on my extension roof! They couldn’t see me on the other side of the window and came really close!
The pitter patter of birch seeds
The pitter patter of birch seed bracts (or scales) as you can hear at the beginning of the video can only mean one thing here, a large flock of siskins / grønnsisik (or sometimes redpolls / gråsisik) at the top of this birch tree creating a shower of debris from the bird’s feeding! However, they ARE silent when dining!
Dandelions for bees, beetles and birds
Before my D.A. (Dandelion Awakening) I would religiously remove and cut down as many dandelions as I could, but nowadays my garden perennial beds are full of them. As I’ve written before, dandelions have become probably my most important vegetable in the winter months. I dig up the roots from my garden beds, where I’ve deliberately let them grow, in the autumn, store in my cellar and force them as I need them in cooler rooms in the house. These wild dandelions grow themselves, the only energy I use on them is in the digging and moving to store! A perfect vegetable! There are 11 pages in my book Around the World in 80 plants about the multitude of food uses for dandelions and how you can make a whole meal of them and cycle home after the meal on tyres made of dandelion rubber! But there’s so much more to this miracle plant and I’m sure you’ve read of its many medicinal properties including it being an anti-cancer powerhouse! Sat in the garden, a Eurasian Siskin (grønnsisik) just landed on a dandelion head showing it’s also an important plant for birds in addition to bees, beetles and other insects! Make sure you leave a few dandelions to seed and you may also experience a magical moment like this!
Siskin on the yellow melancholy thistle
A small sacrifice (in extra weeding) is to let thistles set seed…I can then watch siskins (grønnsisik) feeding only a few metres away! Here on Cirsium erisithales (yellow melancholy thistle)
White-tailed eagle..and the airport
White-tailed eagle (havørn) in flight past Malvikodden
Note that you can see Trondheim (Værnes) airport in the background…this is where eagles were flown out and over to the UK and Ireland as part of the reintroduction program…
You can also hear singing siskin (grønnsisik) in the background.
Note that you can see Trondheim (Værnes) airport in the background…this is where eagles were flown out and over to the UK and Ireland as part of the reintroduction program…
You can also hear singing siskin (grønnsisik) in the background.
Bird count weekend
Over the weekend of the national garden bird count (hagefugltelling) the temperature was stable between -1 and +1C. I registered 23 species in the garden, 7 of which sang or drummed, here they are with maximum numbers of each:
Siskin (grønnsisik) 18
Brambling (bjørkefink) 22
Nuthatch (spettmeis) 1
Fieldfare (gråtrost) 6
Bullfinch (dompap) 6
Greenfinch (grønnfink) 7
Robin (rødstrupe) 1
Great Tit (kjøttmeis) 2
Redpoll (gråsisik) 26
Blue Tit (blåmeis) 2
Coal Tit (svartmeis) 1
Great spotted wooodpecker (flaggspett) 2
Sparrowhawk (spurvehauk) 1
House sparrow (gråspurv) 10
Chaffinch (bokfink) 1
Magpie (skjære) 3
Hooded crow (kråke) 1
Yellowhammer (gulspurv) 6
Blackbird (svarttrost) 2
Feral pigeon (bydue) 1
Jackdaw (kaie) 30
Hawfinch (kjernebiter) 1
Goldfinch (stillits) 2
Siskin singing (grønnsisik)
Siskin (grønnsisik) singing in a birch tree as they fed…
Siskin (grønnsisik) singing in a birch tree as they fed…and you can hear a woodpecker drumming in the garden (my first ever in the garden) about 3/4 of the way through
…and here are the pair of great spotted woodpeckers which have chosen to set up home in the garden on the neighbour’s bird feeder tree…I didn’t notice the second bird arriving until I saw the film!
Siskin (grønnsisik) singing in a birch tree as they fed…