Greenfinches at Seaton Wetlands

I’ve loved Greenfinches ever since I first saw them in the back yard as a child. I drew them in my 1970s nature notebooks:

Greenfinch – forty years ago in my nature notebooks

Here at Seaton Wetlands in East Devon there are a few busy birds moving through in their search for food:

They look like seriously uncompromising birds, with powerful beaks.

I still find the acid lemon yellow stripes on their plumage to be unbearably exotic.

The males are greener with more defined yellow stripes. The females are greyer and less noticeable. Juveniles are faintly striped above.

I’m finding them very endearing.

We’ve lost half of the entire Greenfinch population in the UK since 1970. How long before the remainder are lost?