Baby goldfinches making a racket!
Greetings, folks! Some fun stuff happened this morning that I’m excited to share with you, the first being that a whole goldfinch family suddenly showed up in our backyard! The place went crazy with squeaking, as we had two adults feeding on the finch sock, three baby goldfinches anxiously waiting in the tree, and one very fluffy goldfinch on the deck rail fending for himself. The fledglings in the tree were quite insistent that they be brought appropriate rations most immediately, and their wings went flapping like a hummingbird when either adult came near. Then, after about five or ten minutes of racket, they all left just as quickly, and the yard went suddenly quiet again…a very dramatic contrast!
Also this morning, I discovered that cardinals can make a hissing sound much like a cat. As I was out on the deck, a female juvenile cardinal came to the (still broken, red) seed plate. A male cardinal nearby quickly decided that this was not okay with him and began chasing the young female throughout the yard. Imagine your local outdoor cat very angry at another feline invading his territory, and that’s the sound. Never heard anything like it from a small bird. It was almost goose-like hissing.
The final cool thing was that I saw a Carolina chickadee fly over to our bluebird nestbox a few times this morning. He didn’t land on top but flew around the opening, peeked inside, and perched at the hole briefly. At the moment, I’m uneducated on the nesting habits of these cute little birds, but surely it’s too late for them to start a nest and lay eggs. Anyway, it was fun to see. I love Carolina chickadees because they are so small and curious. They just seem like friendly little birds. Gotta run! Dave
P.S. The hummingbird pictures I took this weekend. The different backdrop is because we were visiting at my parents’ house up near Virginia!
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Hi there Mr. Dave,
Gotta go back to work tomorrow. Love my summer break. Just wanted to let ya know that one of my fledgings is finally comeing to my BLUE plate on my deck. He was so timid at first but now has the hang of it. I tried some wax worms for them. The local outdoors store was out of mealworms. My bluebirds do not like them. After they tried one, they just flew back to the telephone line and waited for the real worm. Boy, have I spoiled them. Great Pictures!