Born 2 Be Mild ~
New Years Gift.
This little Lady Gold Finch was a wonderfully unexpected visitor yesterday afternoon. It was clear and sunny. The temp was rising to about -6C from -16C the day before. We had just filled the feeders and I had piled seeds on each of the feeder roofs that had snow on them. Before we even got in the house there a male Downy Woodpecker had soared in to start picking at the buffet. Within minutes the Dark-Eyed Juncos, House Finches and Chickadees were bouncing all over the place and things were back to normal..... Then I looked up and saw this little beauty .... I just about knocked my chair over as I jumped out of it to grab my camera.
Her visit was surprisingly coincidental since I knew... or had thought, that the Gold Finches had gone, they have not been around our place since last Fall and I did not expect to see them again till Summer rolled around. BUT ........ I have been sitting in the nook digging through my archives for Steve in the last couple of days (the area where I am able to watch birds at our feeders as well as the place where I have my laptop and camera set up) and I only a few moments earlier I said how very much I missed them these beautiful creatures. One of Steve's hobbies is video editing. He is putting together a collection of bird videos and stills, so I have been digging to find some of my favourite bird shots for him to add. One of the things that had brought us hours of sheer delight to watch was the brilliant yellow of Mr. Gold Finch and his beautiful, yet more mutely toned wife, Goldlieflocks Finch.
I do not know if the males and females are going to be around now gracing our yard, but if they are, I can hardly wait, it will be wonderful to see the brilliant yellow and black of the males against the snow.
In the meantime I have these captures to prove it was not just an hallucination that I conjured up after looking in the archives.
The set below is a series of 4 shots (two flipped) of Goldieflocks from a different direction. The backdrop from the mock-orange shrub made for some fun bokeh.
New Years Gift.
This little Lady Gold Finch was a wonderfully unexpected visitor yesterday afternoon. It was clear and sunny. The temp was rising to about -6C from -16C the day before. We had just filled the feeders and I had piled seeds on each of the feeder roofs that had snow on them. Before we even got in the house there a male Downy Woodpecker had soared in to start picking at the buffet. Within minutes the Dark-Eyed Juncos, House Finches and Chickadees were bouncing all over the place and things were back to normal..... Then I looked up and saw this little beauty .... I just about knocked my chair over as I jumped out of it to grab my camera.
Her visit was surprisingly coincidental since I knew... or had thought, that the Gold Finches had gone, they have not been around our place since last Fall and I did not expect to see them again till Summer rolled around. BUT ........ I have been sitting in the nook digging through my archives for Steve in the last couple of days (the area where I am able to watch birds at our feeders as well as the place where I have my laptop and camera set up) and I only a few moments earlier I said how very much I missed them these beautiful creatures. One of Steve's hobbies is video editing. He is putting together a collection of bird videos and stills, so I have been digging to find some of my favourite bird shots for him to add. One of the things that had brought us hours of sheer delight to watch was the brilliant yellow of Mr. Gold Finch and his beautiful, yet more mutely toned wife, Goldlieflocks Finch.
I do not know if the males and females are going to be around now gracing our yard, but if they are, I can hardly wait, it will be wonderful to see the brilliant yellow and black of the males against the snow.
In the meantime I have these captures to prove it was not just an hallucination that I conjured up after looking in the archives.
The set below is a series of 4 shots (two flipped) of Goldieflocks from a different direction. The backdrop from the mock-orange shrub made for some fun bokeh.