AS I compile these notes two weeks ahead of publication, the feast day of St Valentine is now past, and as the birds of our countryside began to sing and select their mates, so did a fair proportion of humans.

After celebrating St Valentine’s Day, I returned home to find a pair of robins singing near our garden – both would be males, and I think they were in a gentle civilised battle about declaration of their territorial boundaries for the nesting season.

Certainly, bird activity has noticeably increased since St Valentine’s Day and we can expect nest building and more singing before these notes get into print.

Prominent among our regular garden birds is a small flock of goldfinches that have made themselves known within the last two weeks or so.

I do not know where they roost or where they have come from, but during the daylight hours, they seem to flit from tree to tree, invariably making their presence known by a loud and very pleasing twittering noise that involves the entire flock. This is widely known as a charm of goldfinches, and it could be a large family group or a mixed flock.

As I write these notes, the trees are still leafless, but in spite of that, once the birds descend upon the branches, they seem to disappear. It is difficult to see them with the naked eye, but even with binoculars the tiny birds are hard to spot among the branches.

Once the leaves appear, the goldfinches will be almost impossible to observe and they also recognise the wisdom of visiting or roosting in evergreens of various kinds.

These are small members of the finch family, only around the size of a bluetit, but their colouring is beautiful and distinctive.

They fly with the familiar bouncy flight of the finch family and can be quickly identified by their white underparts and warm soft brown upper parts. However, there is a good deal of black on the head and their wings have strong black edges with yellow centres. The tail is also edged in black.

Probably the most recognisable feature of a goldfinch is the red face and forehead, distinguishable in both male and female, but not in young birds. The plumage of the chicks lacks the bright colours of the parents.

If you are fortunate enough to have a charm of goldfinches visit your garden, or the immediate neighbourhood, you will recognise the loud, but pleasing chattering from a nearby tree or trees.

Even with binoculars, the flock may be invisible among the branches, especially when buds, leaves and blossom appear. However, the birds do not appear unduly nervous near humans.

A few years ago my wife and I went for a walk, part of which was through a long avenue of decorative small trees. The trees were young and not then in leaf, but as we entered the avenue, a charm of goldfinches settled in one of the nearest.

Their chattering was very loud and as we moved along the avenue, so the goldfinches kept pace and moved with us until both they and we went our separate ways. I do not know how many birds would be within that particular charm, but I would estimate it was around a hundred.

Not surprisingly, the goldfinch was a popular cage bird in former times, but thankfully those cruel days have ended. The finch family in this country comprises many colourful birds – the chaffinch, for example, has a red body, grey cap and black and white wings, while its cousin, the brambling looks very similar but with more black and white upper parts.

The bullfinch is heavier than most of its relations and also has a red breast but with a grey back, black tail feathers and a white rump. Bullfinches are not popular in orchards and parklands because they love tender new buds on trees and seem to favour those on fruit trees ,as well as hawthorn buds and a variety of seeds from trees and flowers.

Another bruiser is the hawfinch with its powerful beak along with black, white and tan colouring but this is a secretive bird that is rarely seen and it spends much of its life in woodlands where it seems to favour hornbeam trees.

When I was a child living in the North York Moors, the chaffinch was said to be the most common bird in England, but in the 1950s, its numbers had decreased. This was thought to be due to changes in farming methods, but now it seems, chaffinches are again very numerous.

PS While writing these notes, I heard a huge charm of goldfinches near our house, but despite their loud twittering I never saw them.