House Finch

[ysabetwordsmith]

 I just spotted a house finch at our hopper feeder.  EEEEE!  Some years we have them, some we don't.  I haven't seen any for a while.  They look like sparrows with pinkish-purple on the head and breast for the males.

My day sucks slightly less now.  :D

Comments

[chanter1944]

I love house finches! :D They nested in our upstairs awnings for multiple years when I was growing up, though I mistakenly knew them as purple finches back then. Whoops! Thank you Cornell bird call library for finally setting me straight. At least one year we had three or four different nests, one each in two of the windows in the bedroom my middle sister and I shared, outside the bathroom window and possibly in my other sister's window as well. Many, many mornings during childhood springs and summers, I was awakened by cheep cheep cheep cheep! tiny baby chicks chirping up a storm for breakfast. And there was much little girl glee! Even today, I can ID adults' songs immediately.

It's little wonder I decided on those wings for Leigh, really. :)

Yes...

[ysabetwordsmith]

They are charming birds. Here we have mourning doves that nest right outside the kitchen window sometimes.

Re: Yes...

[chanter1944]

Ooh yes! We'd get mourning doves nesting over the porchlight on the front steps. I've always liked them. Such gentle birds. The robins who occasionally claim the side or front door awning for nesting, on the other hand, could and can get sharding mean. One flipping dive bombed and chased my sister across the lawn, and this was recently!

Birds

[shiori_makiba]

Nice. Glad something could brighten your day. ^_^

We get a lot birds around my house sometimes - there are several big trees mixed with open space. I'm not very good at identifying them aside from ones like the cardinals or the blue jays. Egrets and what I believe are sandhill cranes wander through on a regular basis.

[redsixwing]

Finch!

They're so cute. I'm glad they brightened your day.

[kerkevik_2014]

Once, during a brief period of homelessness after I'd been flooded out of my home, I was helped by a couple who I hadn't really known that long (when my own family never lifted a finger).

Not long after I'd moved back home, I was waiting to assist my friend, she has cerebral palsy, with a shopping trip. I was outside to let the taxi driver we were waiting to arrive that she was indeed on her way, when a reddish-brown creature emerged from the part fence/part hedge across the road.

It sped across the road; stopped suddenly about three feet in front of me as it realised that I was there, seemed to look me up and down; made its decision, and sped back from whence it came.

The whole thing lasted less than thirty seconds.

If only I could transfer memories to photographic paper.

kerk

Wow!

[ysabetwordsmith]

That's quite an encounter.

Re: Wow!

[kerkevik_2014]

Even more so when you think that Blairgowrie is a relatively urban area; outside one of the few ranges, even in Scotland, where Red Squirrels are still thriving.

It was magical for sure.

kerk

Re: Wow!

[ysabetwordsmith]

When I was in college, Ratatosk the Squirrel interrupted a lecture. Quite a large squirrel was gallivanting around the stage behind the teacher, lampooning her performance, as she tried to convince a hall full of laughing college students to ignore him. Sometimes he scampered up and down the aisles, bowing and chattering to the audience.

Eventually I told him to knock it off.

He scampered right to my aisle, jumped up and ran along the chair backs, and sat down to give me an expectant look.

I gave him a granola bar from my lunch and said, "Take this and go away."

He went, and he didn't come back.

Everyone was wondering how I'd done it, but really, it was just a matter of recognizing him -- as a messenger spirit, he is an unmistakable jackass whose whole JOB is carrying insults -- and knowing that there's a whole category of sacrifice for getting rid of pesky spirits.

[filkferengi]

What a fun "dust of snow"!