Greenfinch R.I.P.

Yesterday I was out in the garden photographing Red Admiral & a couple of Painted Lady butterflies (after seeing Migrant Hawkers dragonflies flying early in the morning & a Brown Hawker in the early evening) when I heard a rustling noise from the fish pond and a very bedraggled male Greenfinch was literally a foot away from me. It sheltered under a bush, but was clearly something very wrong with it. The bird just stayed put and didn't fly off as you would expect from a healthy bird.

I put out some seed and left the bird. I checked the bush again this evening and sadly found it's corpse. I retrieved it and buried it in the garden, a sad end for such a fine looking bird, but I take heart that it's descendants; juvenile Greenfinches are feeding on the sunflower seed feeders as I type this blog.