Dúlra’s no photographer – but he’s very proud of this picture he took this week.

He had to focus on the feeder for about three hours to finally get the two birds he had been hoping for – a male and female siskin feeding side by side.

He thought he’d never be able to capture them together. There were so many finches battling for the feeder that even when a siskin arrived, there would be a goldfinch or chaffinch or a tit on the other side. 

The effort and hours involved has given Dúlra a newfound respect for photographers – they need phenomenal patience to get that perfect shot, never mind the strength to hold a camera for so long!

Siskins – siscíní in Irish – are a bird that really shouldn’t be seen in any of our gardens. But sunflower hearts are an amazing food that’s irresistible to so many birds, even those who, up until now, kept well away from people. 

Not that siskins are particularly afraid of us, but our paths should rarely pass. These are birds of the treetops that feed on conifer and alder seeds far above our heads. When they discovered sunflower hearts, they came down to our level for the first time.

Even the Belfast hills weren’t wild enough for siskins, so Dúlra never saw one when he was young. When we were up on the Belfast hills, he remembers a few times someone asking for silence and and saying they heard a siskin – and then pointing to a wee dot high in the sky, always flying in the direction of Lough Neagh with its thickets of alder trees, which was its favourite food before sunflower hearts.

One much older guy living nearby was so enthralled by siskins that he used to travel to Lough Neagh to catch them and keep them at home. One day on his way home he was caught himself – and ended up on the front page of the newspapers charged with the rare offence of trapping wild birds. That same day he freed all the birds he had in cages in his garden – except for a sole male siskin, telling us he couldn’t live without it!

Today, with siskins now feeding outside the kitchen window, Dúlra gets why this guy was so captivated by them. This is no ordinary bird, but a twittering, happy, tame bundle of energy that people in previous times never got to see at close quarters. 

And Dúlra must enjoy them while he can because they’ll be heading back to the treetops within weeks to breed – and then you’ll never see them. They hide their nests so well at the end of a branch at the top of a conifer tree – maybe even those Scots pines on the Glen Road – that a legend in Germany is that they guard a magic stone in their nest that makes them invisible. So suddenly they’ll go from a garden feeder outside your window to a disappearing act!

The paler female on the right might already be pregnant, while the bright green male doesn’t mind standing out as he doesn’t need to be camouflaged on the nest. 

Dúlra will miss this pair when they leave – but he's already looking forward to welcoming them back in the autumn, hopefully with their new family.

n Not only one pair of grey wagtails are nesting at the Falls Park Ballymurphy Stream, but four!

A reader walked the length of the stream this week and counted eight birds in total. It’s a real vote of confidence by nature in the stream and the whole park. If there’s a bird which can vie with the siskin for beauty, it’s the grey wagtail.

• If you’ve seen or photographed anything interesting, or have any nature questions, you can text Dúlra on 07801 414804.