Golden touch

After a few mornings of soggy cereal and cold coffee, today I made a point of hauling myself out of bed early enough to be dressed and finished with breakfast before 8 a.m., as that's about the time the birds seemed to get active these past few days. So, naturally, I saw a single Chickadee for about 10 seconds... that is, until I was packing my things to head on in to work. In fact, I'd already locked my front door when I realized I could hear birds chirping close by. I peeked around the corner to see a Purple Finch bolt from the feeder and a couple of Chickadees perched in the nearby tree. I told myself I really should get going if I didn't want to be la-oh look: a nuthatch. And there's a Titmouse too.

Needles to say, I decided I could spare a few more minutes and still make it to Manchester by nine. And I'm glad I did, because as it turned out a Goldfinch decided it was the perfect time to sit a spell and have something to eat:



All puffed up and looking a lot like a baby chicken:



Looking like it's either chewing someone out or blowing a Bronx raspberry:



Nice of it to shift around so I could take a shot of its plumage from the back, no?



Sometimes it seemed perfectly fine with sharing the feeder:



Other times, not so much:



Dipping down to get some of the seeds that fell into the notch underneath the perch:



When I went through my photos I discovered that although the finch's head wasn't in focus in this particular image, the feathers along the top of its wing were crystal-clear:



One last look:



Just in case anyone was wondering, I did indeed arrive at work on time without driving any faster than usual. Heck, I even had two whole minutes to spare. Not bad, huh?