It's not gonna be a long post this morning because I have a meeting to attend, but I wanted to show you my fuzzy photo of who showed up at my hummingbird feeder again yesterday...Yep! Mr. finch! :-) Or, as I now know him, Mr. Goldfinch! I saw a close up of him on the Audubon site HERE.
When I first saw him I was really excited, thinking maybe I had seen some kind of rare hummingbird! ^_^ But then I took a closer look and realized..."Heyyyyy! He has a short beak!...That's not a hummingbird!!!" :-) Then I realized something else...he WAS rare!! Rare to my feeder!! LOL
The only visitors I get to the hummingbird feeder are....uhhhh...hummingbirds!! ^_^ In fact, even though we usually hang suet from this same hook for the winter birds, we never get birds landing on the hummingbird feeder, as if they're in some kind of 'Twilight Zone' confusion about where they are!! LOL
We have blue jays and cardinals, robins and woodpeckers, and all kinds of birds coming to the suet feeder in the winter, but guess what?!....I've NEVER seen a goldfinch there! NEVER!!! ^_^ So he was a pretty sweet surprise to me anyway, even though he was 'just' a bird, and not a hummingbird! :-)
He was a male goldfinch, probably looking for a lady goldfinch, and totally befuddled with my helicopter-like hummingbirds!! LOL Interestingly though, he was pecking and sipping nectar...SOMEHOW!...from the hummingbird feeder!! I know he was getting something because he would peck and then tilt his head backwards and open and close his beak like he was tasting something! :-) He did that a few times. And then he was just sitting on the perch looking around for a while, before he would go to one of the other four perches and repeat the process!!
Who knew!! Apparently nectar comes out of the feeder if you peck on it!!...But do other birds sip on nectar besides hummingbirds?! O_O How un-bird-educated am I?!!! LOL
Speaking of education, I wanna send a big 'shout-out' to my baby-girl daughter/girlfriend who just graduated her course at Holyoke Community College yesterday!! ^_^
She worked really hard to get a little more knowledge under her belt to help her out in the financial department in the future, if need be. And with all of her other responsibilities, being a mom, a wife, and a care-giver to her mother-in-law, I'm really proud of the effort she took through all of the wild schedules and exhaustion in order to get it done!! ♥ "Good Onya, Baby Girl!!!" {And, on a side note, she looked so pretty and grown up in her cap and gown standing beside the young people with their purple and blue streaks in their hair, and silver and gold rings and studs in their eyebrows and lips!! ^_^ It's a different world out there...just saying!! ^_^}
Okay, I'm off!!...Have a good day, Y'all!! ♥ {Below is a little poem in honor of the green I'm seeing in the backyard now...finally!!)
GREEN
Beans, asparagus,cabbage and frogs,
cucumbers, shamrocks, and moss on old logs.
Leaves, trees, and tangy mint jam,
Dr. Seuss stories of green eggs and ham.
Grasshoppers, apples, and new lawn-cut grass,
tropical waters and thick bottled glass.
Pistachio, collards, and yes...Money too!
And don't forget envy. It's green when you stew!
Ecologically aware, reusably clean,
Or you don't know anything. They both are called "green".
A color, a feeling, a veggie, all fun!
And also my favorite color is one!
