Outdoor Ontario
Birding Reports => Backyard Birding => Topic started by: Leslie on December 07, 2013, 04:13:54 PM
-
Me: I haven't seen a house finch in my backyard in ages."
That was Thursday.
So yesterday I had a house finch. (Along with a red-tailed hawk. And after I've been seeing Cooper's all summer & a month in the fall, red-tails are big.)
Today--a whole little flock washing in and out.
Also a male downy, juncos, chickadees, cardinal, nuthatch.
The goldfinches have found the feeder.
The juncos perch on the Canada goldenrod and peck at the seedheads. I thought only goldfinches did that. I've been treating Canada goldenrod as a bit of a placeholder in the garden. It grows so well restoration specialists get a bit blase about it, but now that I've seen how popular it is with the birds I'll definitely be encouraging it next spring.
-
If it's like my goldenrod, you won't have to encourage it, just hold it back!
I cut the flower heads off a bunch of goldenrod and dropped them to one side to pick up later. The juncos loved having them at ground level and came back several days in a row till they'd picked them clean.