Feed me! Feed me! Feed me... FEED ME!!!

One of our prettiest back yard birds, the American Goldfinch - and also the bird that breeds the latest of all the songbirds. An interesting fact about goldfinches is that they are one of the only birds that feed their nestlings seeds (rather than insects). And because their primary food for nestlings in the wild are thistle seeds, they don't breed until late in the summer when the thistle is forming seeds. Isn't that fascinating?

I usually see the juvenile goldfinches start showing up sometime in early September and I actually thought I might have just missed them this year. So, when I was busy working in the living room this afternoon and heard the distinctive sound of baby-bird begging calls, I grabbed my camera and headed out. I was rewarded when the female (above) landed on a branch on my deck, followed immediately by one of her more insistent kids (lower left). Here you can see the little one engaged in classic fledgling behavior with fluttering wings and repeated begging calls. So cute to see.

As long as I was out, I figured I'd put some peanuts out and see who showed up. Before I could even get to my seat, the blue jays, titmice and several chipmunks were closing in. What followed was 30 minutes or so of total fun for me. I am spoiling all the critters rotten right now - but since most of them are caching food for winter, I don't feel bad about over-feeding. This way I know that they'll have plenty of food stored for winter.

I posted six shots of Flickr, starting HERE with a connoisseur chipmunk

The car transport guy called today and he is picking up my Honda tomorrow around 1. Hubs should also be getting here around that time (he's taking a car service from the airport since I can't pick him up). And we are now mere days from moving - wow! Down to the wire, as they say.

Many thanks for sending my little Happy Hour Chipmunk to the Spotlight page - he's demanding more dried corn and peanuts as compensation for his stardom. Ingrate.

Happy Thursday, people...

Debbi