Canal Walk - Fauna

No sign of the promised showers today - I shall have to water the garden tonight.
When we woke up, it was sunshine with some clouds. When a quick check of the forecast still said showers, we thought we would get out for a walk while the weather was still good. Lots of birds around - as well as all the pigeons and sparrows we saw some unidentified bird of prey, lots of chaffinches in glorious colour, thrushes and a blackbird, a little baby robin (alas for the ones I was hoping we'd have in the garden), bullfinches and a real treat - a pair of goldfinches.

Diligent thrush collecting worms.

I'd love to know why robins in particular are so fearless - this one was too far from any houses to be much used to people but we met him on the way up the path and back, and both times he sat there till we were almost on him
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 The goldfinches were an especial treat as we used to have so many in our last garden before we moved here. We could have a dozen or more sitting on the washing line waiting to get at the feeder. And we haven't had one single one since we moved. The photos aren't the best because of the strong sun, but aren't they so pretty. The red and yellow are so bright when you see them properly. I used to spend hours watching them out the kitchen window. In the second one, you can see what looks like thistledown in its beak. I can tell you, I especially let some thistles grow one year, and I never once saw a goldfinch near them. The peanuts were far more attractive. And with a fine crop of thistles to weed out the following year, I decided that town ones were turning their beaks up at their supposed favourite food. But in Corfu one year we saw a field of thistles just full of goldfinches, and in Clare they love them too.

Lots of insects too, dragonflies - normal size and humongous, hoverflies, and a lot of these little butterflies.