Subject: Goldfinches
Date: Jan 17 13:46:47 2002
From: Patricia Hansen - pmhansen at drizzle.com


This was a nice morning of firsts. For the first time since I have been up
here (3rd floor) I had a big fat robin enjoy a good splash in the birdbath,
took his time and spent a good 10 minutes with morning ablutions. Last week
I spotted what I thought to be a male goldfinch. It was just leaving the
thistle feeder as he caught my eye so I wasn't too sure. About 9am this
morning I had a flock of goldfinches, I counted 17. They spent a bout 15
minutes at the feeders and were gone, I thought. Then I noticed that they
were among the 'regular brown birds' in a large alder tree. They have been
back en mass several times today and this afternoon were joined by three
house finches.

Last week I had very few birds and on one day saw not a one. The weekend was
pretty inactive too. Tuesday things started picking up and today was pretty
busy, but not as much as it has been. I have spotted the Juncos in the tree
but not schmoozing my potted plants as they usually do. The BC chickadees
are finally back but Hop-a-Long is still MIA since before Christmas.

One thing I'm really disappointed in is my suet feeder. I have tried the
store bought suet cakes, made my own with both rendered beef fat and lard,
tried the goopy peanut butter recipe but there are just no takers other than
a siskin once in awhile. The flicker ignores it completely and goes right to
the sunflower chips.

The hardy fuchsia is still giving some last gasps of bloom and I just
purchased a witch hazel and winter jasmine. The Anna's seem quite taken
with these as well as working both hummer feeders. These few warmish days
from time to time have hatched out some webs of baby spiders on the balcony
and they clean those up in no time, Fascinating to watch!

Patricia Hansen
2 Balconies,3rd Floor
Tacoma, Wa. USA
pmhansen at drizzle.com


"Use what talent you possess:
the woods would be
very silent if no birds sang
except those that sang best."
- Henry Van Dyke