Greetings,

As expected, the numbers of American Goldfinches in my yard is continuing to increase on a daily basis. Currently there are about 50-60 American Goldfinches visiting my feeders (7), and with them continuing to molt into their alternate plumage, the yard is alive in yellow! Unfortunately, as I was going to grab more thistle from my bin, I heard one of the feeders rustling, and much to my surprise, I looked over to see a single goldfinch stuck inside the feeder! It was one of the ball feeders with four ports on the bottom that the birds stick their whole heads in. To my dismay, I realized that the top loading port which is used to fill the feeder was open, and the goldfinch must have fed from there, but went in too far and got stuck. Luckily, I was able to get the bird out quickly, and the bird flew away issuing a “Potato-Chip” to show it was strong and fine. This experience showed me how careful we need to be when providing food or shelter for wildlife. Fortunately, I have lots of experience extracting and banding birds in California with PRBO, so I was able to get the finch out in a fast and effective manner.

Other notables around the yard included singing White-throated Sparrows, Eastern Phoebe and Carolina Wren. I was also able to hang up my first hummingbird feeder of the season, anticipating their arrival in the coming week or two.

With tomorrow’s nice weather, I will finally get a nice long morning in, and will post the results here.

All the best…spring is here!

Chad