Right from the source

I had mentioned in my posts of July 30 and August 4 that the birds in our front yard were careless about throwing seeds to the ground and that, as a result we now had a little patch of sunflowers growing. My last report stated that two had bloomed. We ultimately had about 25 sunflowers of various sizes bloom in our little patch! The biggest was about 5” in diameter, while some were in the 2” - 3” range.

At various times we’d notice the birds using the stalks of the sunflowers as a resting place. And today, I guess because I didn’t put out any sunflower seeds in the feeder, an American Goldfinch decided he’d just get his right from the source!

A male American Goldfinch (Carduelis tristis) gets his sunflower seeds from a sunflower in our front yard. The sunflower was one that grew, ironically, from sunflower seeds dropped by birds from a feeder. This photo was taken from our living room, through a bay window. I also had to shoot in between two of the posts on the banister -- not an easy shot -- but worth the effort, I think.

This is a photo of our little sunflower patch that I took back on August 21, when there were a lot more sunflowers than there are now. I've had to thin the the patch out, as some have died, fallen over, or had their heads chewed off by predators -- probably deer.