Gardening Happenings
Posted: February 6, 2023 Filed under: Gardening | Tags: Amercican Goldfinch, My Kitchen Window, nature photography, possums 15 Comments
I love to pick up interesting bits of nature that I find around the yard and arrange them on my porch table. There are stones, pinecones, Rosy Wolf shells, and two large acorns I found in the woods that are now just caps.
Apparently, someone else was checking out my little display and decided to EAT IT leaving the caps behind. I know it was you, squirrel.
A flock of American goldfinches arrived rather late in the season, it may have been the cold that brought them here. Even from across the yard, they were very skittish and that’s the best photo I could get with the long lens.
The goldfinches stayed around for a few days, so I broke down and bought a bag of the very expensive niger seed which is like candy for these birds.
I was able to get a good close-up from my kitchen window of this hungry birdie. It was eating so fast that its beak had seed stuck on it.
The day after I put the costly seed out, the goldfinches promptly left. Now I have an entire bag of seed. They probably will not return until next year and the goldfinches will not eat the old seed.
After a long week of storms, I found many broken-off tree limbs. This one was driven into the ground, which happens quite often. I’m always thankful I haven’t been impaled by one.
The possum was back out in the middle of the day. Its clean and fluffy fur looked nice enough to pet.
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I couldn’t help laughing. The same thing happened to me last year. By the time I noticed the goldfinches and bought the seed, they were gone. I thought I’d been hearing goldfinches last week. Maybe I did. I did notice house finches eating the niger seed, so maybe you’ll still have some takers. My house finches showed up just last week for the first time.
That’s a cute little possum. They’ll eat acorns, too.
I should have gone with my first instinct to not buy it.
What if you would put the bag of seed in the freezer for next year? Gold finches are so pretty!
Nice shot of the goldfinches!!
Well, at least that is the worst of it. My colleague down south brought home a floral truss from a Canary Island date palm, and put Christmas lights on it. It was about four feet tall, and quite tacky.
Goldfinches are nomadic, so they might come back around. Could you freeze the seed in an airtight container perhaps?
I heard about doing that, but I just don’t have the room. I will keep the seed out just in case others pass by.
This was a fun post–don’t you just hate when your guests eat the decorations?? Love your goldfinch photos. I’ve a only a few this year; hoping for more before true spring sets in and they’re gone for the year.
The wild animals are always watching.
The goldfinches love echinacea and verbena bonariensis when it starts going to seed. I gave up buying special food for them because they didn’t seem to eat it. Perhaps I’d put it out at the wrong time for them. Nice of you to feed them!
Last year I had a flock for a couple of months and bought bags of food. No luck this year.
Great Goldfinch portrait. I see one or two flit by every year, but they don’t hang around. Squirrels!
My window didn’t look too bad in the photo.
I am unfamiliar with possums but suspect they have sharp claws… look cute though! Your shots of the goldfinches are lovely. I never manage to photograph birds, but we don’t often get goldfinches or very colourful birds in the garden anyway – despite all the thistle seed around!
Possums do have sharp claws and teeth. They can easily climb trees. People don’t like because their tails look like rats. I don’t find much damage from them. Squirrels are worse and armadillos dig up my garden beds.