Dear Tweetsters - I just wanted to report that for the last five or so
days, we've had  two Lesser Goldfinches at our backyard seed feeder
about six blocks south of the UW Arboretum. One is a 1st year male and
the other is a female of unknown age. They show up singly, together or
with American Goldfinches.

We are using pure hulled sunflower seeds in the feeder, which is
extremely popular with the passerines.

There have been a fair number of sightings of Lesser Goldfinch reported
in recent years in Western Washington but few in Seattle. Gene Hunn
reported three King County sightings as of his 2012 book but none was in
Seattle. eBird shows only two other Seattle reports, both by the same
person in 2014 a few weeks apart, so unclear if that was two sightings
of the same bird. So it appears ours could be the second or the third
sighting in Seattle, based on Gene Hunn and eBird.

However, as described by Ryan Merrill in an Aug 11, 2014 Tweeters post,
Lesser Goldfinches have been rapidly expanding northward on both sides
of the Cascades in recent years.

While on the subject of touting our backyard sightings, I might as well
mention that several weeks ago, we had a Pileated Woodpecker show up at
our suet feeder for two days running. We have lived here 33 years and
that was the first time we've had Pileated in our backyard.

You can see pictures of the two Lesser Goldfinch at my husband's eBird
report:

https://ebird.org/pnw/checklist/S61354450

Jane Hadley

Seattle, WA


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