Country diary: Here's the charm of the goldfinch - we want them to be near us | Mark Cocker

Hogshaw, Derbyshire: They're in our paintings, in our folklore. A little opportunistic planting and I've got them in my gardenAs I cleared our garden of dead vegetation, including many old teasels, I realised that the latter were still shedding seeds and luring goldfinches to them. Not wishing to deprive winter birds of food, or myself of opportunity, I planted the stalks in a single grove, and set up a mobile hide. Within minutes, a kind of magic unfolded. Sulphur wings twittered as old plants swayed with their featherweight burdens and the pointed pink beaks jabbed relentlessly for food.Of all European birds, goldfinches are surely those best able to illustrate the survival of magical thinking in our world. Throughout the middle ages and the Renaissance, more than 300 artists across 486 works - including those of Leonardo, Raphael and Michelangelo - painted Madonna and Child images with goldfinches secreted in them. Continue reading...