2008-02-21

If you build it they will come

Juli was right. After 6 months of NOTHING, I had two. Then 4, 8, 20, and more. Now that they're here, I'm not so sure that I want them.

Goldfinches!

The full complement (8 to 10 on the sock plus more waiting in the wings) can eat all the seeds from that sock in just a few days!

4 comments:

  1. Ha! I've got them too, at least a couple dozen. It took less than a day for the first goldfinch to find my feeder, but it was a clear plastic one-- they can see the seed inside. I don't want to say how much money has gone to buying thistle this past year. But once they depend on you, how can you stop?

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  2. The goldfinches are so charming it is worth the effort to attract them. We live in Chicago so don't have to use a feeder just grow flowers they like and a couple of evergreens for nesting and goldfinches are more common than house sparrows.
    I have seen them on sunflowers,coneflowers and liatris. They disappear after the seed does.

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  3. matilija -

    Yes. I can't stop now because I'd feel guilty. I did have a couple day hiatus when the sock went empty, but they came right back.

    gloria -

    I feel a little bad about the superabundance of seed I've laid on. I'd feel better if, like you, I had a native plant food.

    A little Googling turns up some plants I already have or could plant: Achillea millefolium (specifically the red ssp., but I presume all) I have the white flowering kind. Also the Aster family, as you've indicated - Aster chilensis, etc. Cercis occidentalis (have it) and a whole lot more. Maybe as my garden matures I'll see them on the plants more and more.

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  4. Heh...I'm in the same boat with abundant goldfinches, and right now the redpolls are pounding on the thistle hard core. Once in awhile I get indigo buntings too, and that's a real treat!

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