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Thursday, November 30, 2023

Winter Goldfinch #1090

During the last half of November I only had a few opportunities to walk out in the back yard. It was usually very cold and windy. Worse, very few birds were out. The only exception was on November 17, when a lone male Eastern Goldfinch suddenly perched on the fence rail. Males resemble the females in drab winter garb, but their plumage is suffused with varying degrees of yellow, most evident around their face and neck This male was particularly bright:


The bird dropped down and was nearly invisible in the weeds behind the fence. I obtained a few more lucky shots, this on a dried-up American Burnweed which still has a few clinging seeds with attached fluffy "parachutes" (pappus):  

It then flew to the dried-up stalk of an Evening Primrose. Note the few black feathers on the bird's forehead, remnants of the conspicuous black patch he will sport in summer plumage:

In the background, the clinging brown leaves of an oak tree created pleasant bokeh:

So much for my outdoor birding. Seen through the windows of the front door, an American Robin posed nicely in the bare branches of the Aspen next to the feeders:

A  male Northern Cardinal perched in the same tree, then flew down to feed on the safflower seeds in the hanging platform:


A Black-capped Chickadee paused briefly on the granite ledge before flying up to grasp a single sunflower seed:

An Eastern Bluebird inspected the suet feeder:

Another bluebird fed at the pine cone stuffed with peanut butter (a poor photo  taken diagonally through the double panes):

A Hairy Woodpecker tasted the suet. Note its large size, longer bill and pure white outer tail feathers which distinguish it from the Downy Woodpecker:

The male Hairy's red occipital patch is bisected by a black stripe, while the male Downy has a single red spot:

Two days later, this male Downy Woodpecker stopped by to provide a comparison. Its bill sticks out only about the same distance as the space between its base and the Downy's eye: 

My computer station is reflected in the glass of our front door, which provides a good view of the feeders:

Just after sunrise on November 28, the full Beaver Moon was setting over Hartford:


This week's header: Beaver Moon setting over Hartford

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Linking to:



Wordless Wednesday (on Tuesday)

Wild Bird Wednesday

My Corner of the World
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Please visit the links to all these posts to see some excellent photos on display
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17 comments:

  1. Beautiful moon photos. Lovely shots of the Goldfinch!

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  2. Hi Ken, despite the bad weather you managed to get some very nice bird pictures. We also have goldfinches, but I haven't seen any this fall. By the way, not the full moon either, probably too many clouds in the sky. It's very cold, but it probably won't stay that way. I wish you a pleasant weekend. Thanks for the link to Nature Thursday and best regards – Elke

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  3. Hello Ken,
    Lovely captures of your sweet Goldfinch. I love the Cardinal, Chickadee and both the Woodpeckers. Wonderful photos. The birds do seem to disappear on those windy days. Thank you for linking up and sharing your post. Take care, have a great weekend. PS, thank you for leaving me a comment.

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  4. Fantastic captures of the birds. The Beaver Moon captures are excellent too.

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  5. The brownish background really did make the bird pop off the page! I love goldfinches and haven't seen as many this year. Take care and enjoy your weekend!

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  6. I like your Beaver Moon also. We get a lot of birds stopping here, going north but resting up, maybe mating, after the long flight across the Gulf of Mexico. Vise versa in the spring. The cardinals are not here long. Makes me wish I was a bird man. Every Saturday we have an article in our local Houston newspaper where a bird correspondent has an article, mostly about one bird family, like your cardinal. Today though he wrote an article about the migratory ducks that are spending the winter here. He separated them into "dabbling ducks" and "diving ducks", in the way that that each has its own way of swimming looking for food. We also have Muscovy ducks, Margaret who writes here as a bird lady, identified those from pictures on my blog, that stay year round in our ponds and city streams. I will look to see if we have any different variety staying here for he winter. An aside, when I was small I treasured my Audubon bird book, some of the varieties I still can identify.
    Our correspondent's name is Gary Clark. I think he has written some bird books, at least one, also.
    ..

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  7. Hello :=) .
    Delightful captures of all the birds. Your Goldfinch captures have great detail,
    and the rust Oak Tree leaves look fab in the background. The Hairy and Downy Woodpeckers are so different but once again you captured all their detail-
    I had a visit from the G S Woodpecker actually on my balcony a couple of weeks ago, and took as many photos as I could to share on my post. The Coal tit which is so similar to your Black cap Chickadee and visits my balcony, also takes just one sunflower seed and flies off to eat it elsewhere. I enjoyed all your photos,
    Keep warm and well
    All the best
    Sonjia.

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  8. The last two wintery shots are lovely #Allseasons

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  9. Outdoors. Indoors. You have shared a colorful collection of birds, Ken.

    We saw our first American Goldfinches of the season last week.

    Take care as it looks like some very cold stuff headed your way. I won't mention that it's 80 F outside. Of course, it could drop below 70 tonight. Brrrr!

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  10. Nice reflection! I like seeing your pictures of avian soap operas.

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  11. ...Kenneth, you have gathered a fabulous collection of feathered friends! The Cardinal and Bluebird are always favorites of mine. Thanks for sharing.

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  12. You have done a fine job capturing cute birdies and glorious skies!

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  13. thank you for these beautiful images of American birds

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  14. It's cold here too. A week of minus 4 and 5 but it has now warmed to between 3 and 8 degrees. I like those garden birds of your Ken, even in the winter so many of them are just so colourful with not a little brown job to be seen. I rather like your American Goldfinch although most visitors to my blog think our European Goldfinch is nicer! The grass is always greener?

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  15. Your avian photos are all very professional looking ~ my favorite is the cardinal and the finch ~ thanks,


    Wishing you good health, laughter and love in your days,
    A ShutterBug Explores,
    aka (A Creative Harbor)

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  16. As a fellow birder, its awesome - love them all but the cardinal is just wow.
    I visited you via Wine country - aaaahhh!
    I linked up this week with = 39. This is a personal invite to come and join us at #WordlessWednesday #Photography Wednesday - Saturday. You will find the info under BLOGGING

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