09 January 2009

That's not a goldfinch!

Something I noticed from the kitchen door; I don't know how I noticed, but I consider it a good sign that I did notice, despite the other birds on the finch feeder being, in sober truth of fact, actual, attestable goldfinches.

Getting a little closer (living room) indicated that, definitely, not a goldfinch. Which means "grab the camera!". Since the camera had the strap off and retained the 2s shutter delay after mirror lock and generally unhelpful ISO settings from last night's attempts to photograph festive exterior lights, there was some delay between grabbing the camera and when grabbing the camera was useful.

But useful it was:

Pine siskin! (Carduelis pinus)

That's a new-at-the-feeder bird for me. I guess the goldfinches (counted 9 at once yesterday) got dense enough that the pine siskins (there were two there) decided this new restaurant was worth a look.

Update: today's observed goldfinch peak was 18.

2 comments:

piranha said...

today's observed goldfinch peak was 18.

*envious*. :)

yeah, pine siskin. we have lots more of them than gold finches. they seem particularly slow to escape from cats, unfortunately.

Graydon said...

You also have lots more pine trees. :)

I haven't got any cat issues with the balcony feeders, thankfully, besides Aoife sometimes thumping on the glass is sheer frustration.

It's a good thing thistle seed is cheap; the goldfinch flock have got the feeder down by about a third in a day. (Somewhere, somebody gets paid to grow fields and fields of thistles, and I bet zir neighbours, corn fields afflicted with windblown seeds, hate zir.)