The Second Season- American Goldfinches in August

Spring and early summer nesting get most birding attention, and rightly so. However, right now in August, the American Goldfinches are putting on a fun show.  This a favorite image of mine. The male goldfinch has lost a single seed to the breeze.  No problem.  There's abundance aplenty.

The Goldfinch is a very small bird at about 5 inches long and only 13 grams.  The male has brilliant lemon yellow feathering with deep black on forehead and wings.  The female, seen later, is notably more subdued. Both male and female are very vocal in early summer but mostly quiet once nesting begins.

At the time I captured the image below, the female was on the nest and the male was collecting seeds to feed her. He will do that for about two weeks while she incubates the eggs.  Then he will feed both chicks and the female.  Close to the time when the young are fledged, she will join in the feeding.

Let's first look at the male.  The rich lemon yellow body immediately captures attention along with the black forehead and wing primaries.  He's about 5 inches long, as is the female.  At 13 grams, they are about equal to an AAA battery.  In mid August, this male was collecting seeds to feed his mate sitting on eggs.  Later, he will be busier feeding chicks.

When I began following goldfinches in June, they were singing often, perhaps keeping connected as they foraged.  Now, they are silent.

The female builds the nest.  This year, I was able to find a female gathering nesting material.  Various sources say she uses plant fibers, spider webs and, especially, thistle down.  Here, her beak is full of down.  Some sources say the nest is tightly built and weather resistant. Never found one. While identical in size to the male, her colors are subdued and there is no black forehead.

While I did previously note that the male feeds his mate incubating the eggs,  yesterday I did photograph a female feeding on seed heads in our garden.   It was a warm, dry morning so I consider the temperatures allowed her excursion. 

They do love Cone Flowers.  We leave the stalks standing through the winter and often see goldfinches picking on them.

Second to Cone Flowers are both Monarda didyma and M. fistulosa.  Here's a showy male on M. fistulosa.

I have lots more images of these golden visitors, but keep telling myself to curb the impulse to overdo my enthusiasm.

Hope this encourages some to find a bit of late summer joy.

Paul Schmitt

Winged Gold- Late Summer

My last post was titled Golden Joy.  Now those sunflowers are all mature seeds.  I am continuing the "gold" theme with two flying critters that also deliver joyful reactions.  

One principal source here is cone flowers. Top on the list of seed eaters found on them are the Gold Finches.  The male at left is just pausing. When his crop is full, he'll soar away to feed the chicks. Initially, the female stays on the nest and I only see males. But soon, the demand by the chicks is too much for the male, and both of the pair engage in furious harvesting. Then, in a few days, the chicks fledge and the activity nearly ceases.

Often, the Gold Finches are mostly hidden in the densely packed clusters of cone flowers. After many largely hidden birds, one male chose a nice single stalk to feed on. The camera jumped into long runs of high speed shooting. The result was two "keeper" images out of a sequence of over sixteen. 

Another golden flyer is the Tiger Swallowtail butterfly. This one was feeding on other cone flowers in a more southern location, where they hadn't yet gone to seed. You can tell that it is recently emerged.  With time, they can get pretty ragged on the fringes.

A few moments later, I found a butterfly bush in full bloom.  I was amazed to see two swallowtails sharing the same plant.  

These golden flyers won't be around long.  I'm schedule next week for a short outing to see bugling elk in western Pennsylvania.  Autumn is just around the corner. 

Paul Schmitt