Tiny Tuesday : : The Goldfinch Spa

What with the ravens leaping and flapping around the suet holder, the hawks doing military style fly bys and the woodpeckers on a shuttle run from their condo in the telephone pole to the bird feeders, the tiny goldfinches have not been much in evidence lately. The slightly larger house finches, the nuthatches and chickadees fly aside for the larger birds, but return the moment they leave. The black headed grosbeak cuts a striking figure although the ground nesting quail seem to be keeping their distance  a low profile. We miss their evening family walks down the back stairs with one parent acting as a lookout. The hummingbirds are afraid of no one and nothing. They zoom around like crazed hornets missing our heads by centimeters. As OilMan says, "They're like flying hypodermics…."

The goldfinches haven't disappeared entirely, however. They still come by for their afternoon bath and moment of relaxation and a good chinwag (do birds have chins?) before going back to their birdie world in the oak trees. We hated this fountain/water feature by our front door when we moved here, but we would never take it out now that we see how much these charming little birds enjoy it…and how much we enjoy watching them out there..

I know that this is not exactly a macro shot, but as birds go, goldfinches are tiny,and capturing them through the kitchen window with a zoom lens was both challenging and entertaining, so thanks to Beckett for hosting my loose interpretation of 'tiny'.