Saturday, July 19, 2008

GOING ON THE ROAD


Tomorrow and the next day, I'll be traveling. So posting may be dicey, depending.
The sunflower that planted itself is coming along and soon the local male Goldfinch will be hanging by his very interesting feet to pluck the seeds. I discovered last year that Goldfinch, having no pockets just keeps poking them whole down their throats in order to carry them. Why he carries them at times as opposed to just eating them on the spot, I'm not sure. Though there are obvious possibilities. Treats for his mate? Goodies for the kids? Stashing? One of these days he won't elude me and I'll find out.


Ah, here we have very hardworking Mr. House Finch. He's currently been able to elude his fledgling children so he can actually eat some food himself. Note his grooming isn't terribly stellar, poor dear. He's been quite busy being harassed today so a bath was out of the question. There are three or four chicks and they really do get pushy. They'll land on him if he isn't coming across with the chow rapidly enough. They have gotten to the stage where they could well be foraging on their own, but hey, some human kids find it hard to move out of their parent's basement too.

He's chewing fast and in actuality he has moments where he looks downright furtive. Just after this photo was taken one of his progeny discovered him, flew down, and attempted to grab the seed out of his beak. Holding tight Mr. H took off for the Spruce tree with Junior in hot pursuit.

The summer flowers have begun to come on.

And as of today my Milkweed is mature enough to attract the butterflies.

Can you guess what this is? Easy, right? It's glow worms. Another adventure, today I attempted to photograph fireflies. You have to be there long enough to get lucky while not being eaten alive by the mosquitoes you're attracting. Quite fascinating in a masochistic kind of way.

But the sunset was very good, even with the mosquitoes. I'll be waiting to hear how the hawks are doing.
See you soon...maybe even tomorrow. Because you never know what you might find while--On The Road.
Donegal Browne

2 comments:

Karen Anne said...

Where is Mrs. House Finch?

Donegal Browne said...

I'd say the Mrs.,considering the time of year, may be sitting on another set of eggs, while dad does the training. In summer, I tend to see the females early in the day at the sunflower seed feeder. Then I don't see them again for the rest of the day. That just might be a pattern and they're visiting other feeders at other times of day or they are sitting their last set of eggs for the season.