The Goldfinch is still in Selfoss and coming every day to our garden. There was some concern that a Merlin had caught it last weekend. A Merlin made a swift attack and caught a bird but thankfully it was not the Goldfinch as we thought. The next day it appeared again in the garden with the group of Redpolls.

The Goldfinch is staying in the company of Redpolls behaving as they do and eating the same feed.  In the last few days it has had to endure a blizzard, frost down to – 13°C and the attacks of a Merlin and a Short-eared Owl.

This morning a Goldfinch turned up in the garden. This is a new species in the garden, number 50 and a new bird on our Icelandic bird list. The Goldfinch is common in Europe but seldom ventures more northerly than the southern regions of Scandinavia.

Goldfinches were first seen in Iceland in 2005 and fifteen birds have been spotted since then. Most of these birds have been seen in Hornafjörður in Southeast Iceland. This is the first time the Goldfinch has been seen so westerly.