Birding Notes

Reflections on birds and other wildlife on the edge of a southern woodland

Friday, January 09, 2009

A Pine Warbler’s Song – and Goldfinches at Last

A Pine Warbler has been singing all around the house, on the edge of the woods, all day today. Its rich, loose, musical trill is a welcome contrast to the stark gray quiet of the bare-limbed trees, like a winter-blooming flower drifting from shadow to shadow.

And Goldfinches, finally! Our two finch feeders have been hanging off the back deck for almost a month now, full of finch-food but empty of birds. Until today, we had only seen two Goldfinches – and that may have been the same one visiting twice. This morning, I looked out the kitchen window into bright sunlight, and saw one Goldfinch clinging to the sock feeder and three perched on the tube feeder, all in grayish winter plumage with black wings, white wing bars, and a pale wash of lemon-yellow around the face and neck. All four stayed for a long time, just sitting and eating.

We’ve never had great numbers of Goldfinches, but last year at least a dozen or two visited the feeders regularly for several weeks. So I’m hoping this is the beginning of a little more activity there – maybe including some other species like Pine Siskins, which seem to be everywhere this year – except here. I haven’t seen a single one so far, though I keep watching.

3 Comments:

At 4:15 PM, Blogger clate said...

I like goldfinches too.

 
At 4:16 PM, Blogger Sigrid Sanders said...

Thank you for your interest,

 
At 3:12 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

I finally got a feeder sock and atracted about 4-6 goldfinches at a time in my backyard in Atlanta (Sandy Springs/Buckhead area) but have not seen them in that last week (May 4-8) and I'm heartbroken! How long do they usually "hang" around this area? Will they come back? Have an 8 pound bag of seeds waiting for them.

Also, got to see an indigo bunting - or someone looking just like one - in my backyard last week, jumping on my pyrachantha hedgerow. The last time I saw one here was in late April 2002!!

 

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