As anyone knows who’s familiar with my blog, I spend most of my time with the camera looking for birds. Lately, the bird that has gotten most of my attention is the lesser goldfinch which is in plentiful supply around here just now. The lesser goldfinch is not as colorful as the American goldfinch, but it can be very pretty. Here’s a shot I got last week:
I haven’t seen any American goldfinches around here lately. They used to frequent a yard Dickie and I pass every day on our morning walk, but the people who were feeding them there had to quit doing that because the birds were always flying into the windows of their home and killing themselves.
This morning I got another shot of a lesser goldfinch having his breakfast. Take a close look at the photo below and you will see that the bird is holding two weed stalks with his left foot. He needs both those stalks to bear his weight. One of the stalks by itself would bend down to the ground, but two enable him to sit where he is and nibble on the seeds in front of him.
(Now go back to the first photo and you’ll notice that the stalk the bird is sitting on is resting against a second stalk. Yes, it takes two of these stalks to bear their weight or they’ll bend them nearly all the way down to the ground.)
OTHER ANIMALS
Occasionally, some other animal crosses my path while I’m holding my camera. Here’s a squirrel I got the other day across the street from the local Catholic church. He was climbing a power pole (not the best place for a squirrel to climb):
The cat below was merely sitting on the fence as I walked by. She stayed there as I walked right up to her and petted her. In fact, she liked that petting so much she didn’t want me to go away. Many of the neighborhood cats aren’t quite that friendly. Most of them run when I get too close:
SUNFLOWERS
Of course, some of the best pictures are flower shots and one of the prettiest flowers this time of year is the sunflower. They’re beginning to fade now, but I got this shot about a month ago as we took our morning walk. Isn’t she a beauty?:
Hope you’re having a good summer. Thanks for looking in on my blog!
