Continuing my wildlife adventures with my iPhone, I caught this charming Chaffinch calling for its parents yesterday. My gut feeling was that a parent would soon show up, which is exactly what happened; however, I’m frustrated to report that I didn’t manage to film the parent (a male Chaffinch) appearing on the very same garden chair, but I did see the two birds fly safely off and disappear into a nearby hedge. What a treat it was for me. I imagine both birds were equally happy to see each other. All’s well that ends well.
FFON. Written by nature detectives. 
What a nice moment to catch on your phone. Glad to hear that the baby chaffinch was reunited with its parent. Wouldn’t it be nice if they came back to see you another day!
People have reported a decline in swifts this year but we have up to a dozen wheeling around in the sky above us here in Norfolk.
The noisy house sparrows that nest under our tiles and fill our gutters with their old homes seem to have left us for the time being. They too have declined in recent years so
we are happy to see them in good numbers. There is a spot in a lane near here where both sparrows and collared doves congregate to take a dust bath and, we think, to eat
grit. It is a good thing the local council does not try to tidy up the lane!
As an unusual footnote, returning to your chaffinches, we wonder how many readers know the meaning of the scientific name of the chaffinch. The name *Fringilla coelebs*
was given to the chaffinch by the famous Swedish biologist, Carl Linnaeus (1707-1778). “*Fringilla*” is the Latin word for a finch and “*coelebs*” is Greek for a “bachelor” (as in
the English word “celibate”). Why did Linnaeus call it the “bachelor finch”? Because as a sound naturalist he knew that, in the winter months, chaffinches in northern Europe
gather and forage in single-sex flocks.
Perhaps readers would like to confirm this for themselves later in the year when groups of finches start to congregate. Hopefully, chaffinches are still behaving in the same
way as they were when Linnaeus named them 250 years ago – despite climate change and all the other challenges that our wild birds face.
John and Margaret Cooper
On Wed, 10 Jul 2019 at 17:17, The Frightened Face of Nature (FFON) wrote:
> Simon H King posted: “Continuing my wildlife adventures with my iPhone, I > caught this charming Chaffinch calling for its parents yesterday. My gut > feeling was that a parent would soon show up, which is exactly what > happened; however, I’m frustrated to report that I didn’t mana” >
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Thanks, John and Margaret for that interesting reply – I, for one, didn’t know that the name *Fringilla coelebs*
was given to the chaffinch by the famous Swedish biologist, Carl Linnaeus (1707-1778). “*Fringilla*” is the Latin word for a finch and “*coelebs*” is Greek for a “bachelor”. It would indeed be interesting to hear from FFON readers (please see John and Margaret’s comments above) to confirm if / when groups of finches do start to congregate. A super idea and it reminded me about that special visit we three paid to the Linnean Society of London during our Maxwell Knight research marathon. What a very special place that turned out to be. Thank you. Simon.
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