[mou] Goldfinch invasion!

[Thomas Maiello]

Refilled my feeders yesterday including one bin of shelled sunflower  
pieces and two thistle feeders and wondered when some feathered  
beastie would take advantage of my month old heated bird bath.  I do  
allow that the bird bath is a bit intimidating to anything that might  
be used to it in subfreezing temps - it looks like a boiling kettle  
waiting for soup flavoring.  And then this morning!  There must be  
some 100+ American Goldfinches, many with a promising mass of yellow  
about their upper breasts and most with the crisply distinct formal  
black and white chevrons.  They are eagerly (anthropomorphing here)  
drinking about the bird bath and of more interesting note they are  
dripping off an older, somewhat sparse pine tree just off my deck.   
Closer scruitiny revealed raids on numerous pine cones as they took  
turns feasting on the sunflower seed.  Add to this fracas a winter  
pale Brown Creeper, my pair of Pileateds, a Hairy and a Downy, my  
residual Chickadees, the occasional Red-Breasted and White-Breasted  
Nuthatches, the suet raiding crows, and my relatively new home office  
window digs may turn out all right.  Now for the proper locating of  
the water feature and a cable system for hotel feeders.  Just loved  
the pileated drumming.  Now if I can just get the Hairy to pluck some  
strings, add the vocalizations of the warblers when they come and the  
bass accents of some croakers and I'll have a spring concert.

Life is sweet!

Thomas Maiello
Angel Environmental Management, Inc.
Maple Grove, MN