Goldfinch at Take Off with Seed, 2015, Archival Digital Print

It would be good to keep a record of observations of these matters.  There is a change in which birds choose to eat at the feeders and when they do. Some come in groups — a family of Grackles was here over the weekend — and then don’t reappear for weeks only to suddenly arrive again as if they are regulars.  What?  You don’t know me?  Others are constant suppers at the table, Braveheart and his wife the most reliable among these.  Each seems to have a morning and afternoon schedule and then there will be periods when the feeders are deserted all day.  Why?  Is there a BirdCon in Staunton or a free concert in Stuart’s Draft?  Or was there gossip that a trapper with a net was nearby?  I don’t know.  Like all communities I’ve watched from my windows, the rhythm is the reassuring constant.

This tiny fellow was very hungry yesterday and ate and ate at multiple feeders.  I caught him on his bounce off to take flight to the feeder near by.  His intensity and size, like blinks, shocking and teeny.  Look at those feet!