Nature watch: goldfinches

[callmemadam]

It’s absolutely beautiful here today, even though, according to my weather app, the temperature ‘feels like’ -9. We had a light powdering of snow yesterday afternoon which has frozen crisp and sparkly. That’s as much snow as I want, thank you.

Looking out of the kitchen window this morning I saw four goldfinches feeding on the seed heads of Verbena bonariensis. This is the very reason I never cut these plants down in autumn. Goldfinches are rare visitors; I saw them occasionally in my old garden, where I had some teasels. If the big freeze goes on much longer, I may see redwings, which only come south in the bitterest of weather. Edit I've just checked and redwings were last seen here in December 2010.

Coincidentally, I’m currently reading a wonderful book: A Sweet, Wild Note by Richard Smyth. It’s all about birdsong and our relationship with it. I’ll write some more about it later, I hope.

Comments

[mouse.livejournal.com]

I awoke to blizzard conditions this morning but it does look very pretty. It's bitterly cold with the wind chill.

How lovely to see the goldfinches, I like them very much, such a pretty little bird. I've got a lot of birds visiting the feeders and I'm about to fill the trays for the ground feeders.

The book sounds really interesting!

Stay warm :)

[callmemadam.livejournal.com]

Oh, poor you with a blizzard. It's starting to cloud over here so we may be in for more snow after all.

I had a good long look at them and they are so very pretty and colourful.

The book is a delight.