The Gold or Yellow Finches have returned. And they are in a feeding frenzy, we have two finch feeders loaded up with Thistle seed - their favorite food.
The feeders are tubes about 2 - 3 inches in diameter and 10 or 12 inches long suspended from tree limbs. Each has four feeding positions, very small slits that the finch can fish out a long thin thistle seed. And yes, they spill a lot of it, but no matter, the remaining finches gather round underneath the feeders and go at it. Nothing is wasted. We get up to 50 or more finches!
A couple of White Wing Doves came in to see what's going on. Where there are other birds, the White Wings come by to lord over them. White Wings are exceedingly greedy. But since they can not fit on the short pegs at the feeding positions, they are then regulated to the ground to feed. I have seen Yellow Finches all summer in Tucson; many think Tucson, in the desert like it is, as a hotter place. It is not, the elevation at Tucson is around 2,000 feet, some areas much higher others slightly lower. But the average temperature in Tucson is less than the average temperature in Dallas/Fort Worth.
Phoenix on the other hand has an elevation around 700 feet similar to Dallas/Fort Worth. And Phoenix is much hotter than Tucson and Dallas/Fort Worth. Phoenix and Tuscon are much drier than Dallas/Forth Worth but then neither one of them is too far from the mountains. Tucson sits right under Mount Lemon which believe it or not has a ski slope.
And the squirrels don't like the feeders either, they are real pigs. I call them "tree rats." They will eventually eat through the plastic to get at the seed. Doesn't matter to them whether it is most desirable, it matters that they can not get to it.
So the little guys win out. The big guys eat off the ground.
The finches will feed for a couple of weeks, maybe a month, then fly off. We know not where, but when they return they are golden - bright yellow. They then stay a while, until it gets hot, then they are off to cool climes.
Oh, that our lives could be so simple.
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