Goldfinches shine in my garden

I WAS sitting in front of the computer but instead of concentrating on the screen I was looking sideways out of the window, staring rather vacantly at a neglected meadow, hoping for inspiration.

The field had been grazed by sheep in the winter and then left to grow a late crop of haylage. But its owner is a part time farmer, like the owners of so many fields in rural Ireland today, and he’s been busy with other things. The mowing was now rather overdue.

One result was a fine show of grassland wildflowers, many of them now going to seed. A couple of weeks ago it was purple with common knapweed, and there still are a few plants in flower. But most of the purple has now been replaced by the black of the seed heads. Suddenly a flock of small birds descended on the field. They disappeared into the long vegetation but kept reappearing, making short, restless flights and then settling again. I know some good ornithologists who can take one look at a flock of birds and tell you with uncanny accuracy how many individuals it contains. It’s a skill I’ve never mastered but I guessed there were at least a hundred birds in the flock.