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Tonights gardeners world.

fidgetbonesfidgetbones Posts: 17,618
in Wildlife gardening
Monty had a bird having a bath in the pond. It was grey, black, and white with yellow flashes on the wings.  T'other half thought it a juvenile goldfinch but the colours are wrong. Did the cameraman have  a wrong colour filter on, or is it something else entirely?

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  • FairygirlFairygirl Posts: 55,117
    I don't watch it @fidgetbones, but could it have been one of the wagtails?
    It's a place where beautiful isn't enough of a word....



    I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
  • fidgetbonesfidgetbones Posts: 17,618
    No, the marking and beak looked like goldfinch, except wrong colour. I've come to the conclusion the cameraman had a filter on that took out all red, so the brown went grey and the red went black.  Either that or he has an atypical colour one.  We had a white vole running round one year. We called him flash. Surprisingly he lasted about six months.
  • chickychicky Posts: 10,410
    We noticed it too - thought it was a grey wagtail, but having googled I’m now not so sure .....🤔
  • wild edgeswild edges Posts: 10,497
    Goldfinch but filmed with a yellow range filter by the looks of it.


    If you can keep your head, while those around you are losing theirs, you may not have grasped the seriousness of the situation.
  • BenCottoBenCotto Posts: 4,718
    Putting filters on is cheating!

    I remember during the Irish Troubles a very irate onlooker was remonstrating with a BBC cameraman. “You lying BBC,” he shouted, “you’re filming things that aren’t happening.”
    Rutland, England
  • fidgetbonesfidgetbones Posts: 17,618
    I use a red filter underwater, otherwise  the colours look very wrong, but topside it shouldn't be necessary.
  • DovefromaboveDovefromabove Posts: 88,147
    edited October 2020
    Juvenile goldfinches have greyish plumage with the gold bands until their first moult  when it becomes the more brownish colour ... my Welsh Uncle Bill was a licenced breeder and National Judge of cage birds and finches and I remember him telling me this ... he could also differentiate the sexes by tiny differences in the beak and shape of the gold bands on their wings.  

    Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.





  • B3B3 Posts: 27,505
    @BenCotto. The Celtic race has always had the better grasp of the abstract😊
    In London. Keen but lazy.
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