Early in the week I bought a new bird feeder as a way to invite more species into our yard. We’ve had many a Blue Jay, European Starling, Morning Dove and Black-capped Chickadee which we love to watch.
The first few days with the new feeder didn’t show much action until our other feeder was emptied of it’s contents which was a hodgepodge of seeds. This new one holds only black sunflower seeds.
A couple of days ago, to our surprise and total glee, we got a visit from some new birds! We figured them out to be American Goldfinches, a male and female. So very exciting for us to see these lovely and brightly coloured birds visit our yard and it got us all looking anew at bird species and comparing their size to the boys – a blue heron is as tall as L. Wow! That’s a big bird. 😉
Our goldfinches seem to be taking over the feeder – maybe there will be babies in the making? Look like we have some new neighbours for a while. 🙂
At this point I really miss my DSLR body that I sold. I had a thought to grab it and a long lens then realized the lens is no good without a body to put it on. Ugh! I sold my old body and haven’t gotten a new one yet. I had to use my point and shoot 5x zoom and crop – the horror. But, hey, better than nothing and if the couple stays for the season I’ll get some good pics when my new camera body comes home to stay.
Just added:
We have now seen a male cardinal as well!
The boys are all excited and are delaying lunch so that they can sit outside and bird watch. They have their binoculars and their bird guide in hand and the two goldfinches are on the feeder.
They have notified me that we also have a house sparrow and a chipping sparrow.
Warms my heart. 🙂
I keep telling myself I need to pick up a bird feeder, what a great surprise you received! I would love to see these birds more. I only see them on my morning walk, quickly flying from one tree to the next!
Those Goldfinches hoarded the seeds and rid it of them all in about three days! I think I will give it the morning before I refill it…I thought Blue Jays were bad! Haha!
We love our feeders and are always making little pinecone feeders to feed our feathered friends. So many beautiful birds this time of year. Enjoy!
We made pine cones feeders a few years ago. It was so nice to see the little birds sitting atop them picking away!
We have 8-10 feeders that we put out in the backyard and it’s Marin’s job to help me fill them up each week. Our neighbour has a bird box and Marin saw the mama bird flying in. We then had to go to the bird store and buy live mealworms that I have to keep in the fridge for the babies. She loves looking at all the birds and naming the different types. We also make birdseed ornaments for Christmas for people to feed their birds with.
Wow! That’s a lot of bird feeders – how wonderful! Marin must get a kick out of feeding the little baby birds. What a great experience and connection to nature and the animals. We made the bird ornaments one Christmas and really just do it again. The birds were happy. Thanks for sharing, Tara! 🙂