Monday, April 14, 2008

Goldfinches Are Back!!!

Finally, the American Goldfinches have returned here to southern NH!! Three days ago Don said to me "do you want to bet when the first goldfinch arrives?" The words were hardly out of his mouth when we looked out the window and there at the feeders were the first two goldfinches. You can see the male goldfinch above at our Stokes Finch Tube feeder, filled with Nyjer Plus mix i.e., sunflower chips and thistle (nyjer) being enjoyed by a Downy Woodpecker and the goldfinch. He is still turning from his drab winter coloring into his bright yellow breeding plumage.
In our recent blog post, "Do You Have Goldfiches" we pondered the mysterious disappearance of the goldfinches from NH and other northern areas this winter. Was it because of lack of seeds here, the invasion of more northern finches such as Common Redpolls, because they knew this would be a record-breaking severe winter and decided to leave, or other reasons? Many of you from all over the country wrote and told us you had goldfinches this winter. The Zen Birdfeeder blog in upstate NY just told us that their goldfinch numbers were down all winter and their first goldfinches just reappeared. Have your goldfinches just arrived?

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

our goldfinches reappeared last week in western MA. i'm so happy! :)

Shelley said...

A goldfinch arrived at our cabin in northern michigan this past weekend but I wasn't prepared for him. Putting the thistle feeder up when I return next weekend. I enjoyed your blog and loved the photo of the downy and finch together - great combo!
Shelley

Ms. Green's Room said...

Oddly, just yesterday, I commented to my mom in Missouri (I'm in Georgia) that I counted 12 goldfinches in my backyard at my feeders!

Chrissy said...

Beautiful birds!

Birdman said...

That is very wierd because I saw my goldfinches again exactly today!

The Boisverts said...

I'm in New Boston, NH and saw the first goldfinches this morning! Yipee!!!!

Also for the first time ever, I saw (and got pictures of, but not great): Cedar Waxwings... about a dozen of them!! Gorgeous! About 5of them were in my holly bushes and chowed down all the berries!
And... for the first time, I also saw an Eastern Phoebe, sitting on my telephone line, "wagging" it's tail! What a morning for me.

The Zen Birdfeeder said...

Mine are indeed back, but not in force by any means!

Anonymous said...

Your Goldfiches LEFT?! I was overflowed with goldfinches this past winter, all least 100 in the backyard...Now there is not nearly as many. That's really wierd.

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