A few minutes ago I couldn't believe my eyes as I walked onto our back porch. Goldfinches at our bird feeder! Here we are, in Wilmington, NC with six inches of snow beginning to melt, quite unusual for our area, and our pretty little guys arrived a few weeks early. Maybe they instinctively knew we could really appreciate their beauty right now with all the horrible tragedies, hateful rhetoric and abounding sadness in our world today.
Won't you enjoy them with me?
Aren't they gorgeous? They have their "winter coat" colors right now, a bit duller yellow than later in the year. In our area we typically see them in late February and early March and then they move on. I'm stunned to see them this early and with snow on the ground no less. Of course the snow really accents their yellow color, brightening it by contrast.
We used to feed them thistle using a thistle feeder (can't say that three times quickly!) but found out they are happy with the black oil sunflower seeds we feed the other birds. A good thing because the thistle feeder rusted out almost immediately. This feeder is "squirrel proof" and has held up well. We do feed the squirrels too, sunflower seeds, corn and nuts, all of which they love.
Copcar hasn't discovered the finches yet, he is snoozing in his shelter which is now in our carport away from the bird feeder. He's funny though, part of him seems to want to go after the birds and the other part seems to figure he isn't hungry so why bother. The birds are safe from him!
Perhaps it is silly but I'm taking the early appearance of the goldfinches as a positive sign... as if they are letting us know things will be alright, they will get better, lessons will be learned, people will be more aware, kinder, and respectful. Likely whimsy but I'm taking hold of it right now.
Thank you Goldfinches, we are really enjoying seeing you and hope you enjoy your sunflower seeds!