Finches . . .

The other day I thought I saw a couple of little Finches in the oak tree out front.  It was crappy weather, raining at the time.  They seemed to be hunting for food.

So I went and bought a couple of the Finch feeder bags at Walmart.  Hung them up on the  Oak tree branches and watched.  Sure enough, a couple days later we had a pair of Finches feeding on the Niger seed filled bags.

Now in the midst of snow storm, as I look out I can count five of the them feeding away. The grab on to the bags, mesh bags, and pull the seed out of the mesh to eat.  They come and go.  Our neighbor has five or six feeders so I am guessing they go over there and feed for a while.  They seem to come and go at will.

The snow shower does not seem to bother them very much.  And it has been constant snow for the last 45 minutes or so.  The weather man said the snow was dry, not moist snow.  So the snow flakes are small and dusty in nature.  But it has been coming down constantly with no let up.  We are predicted to get up to three inches of snow.

That means the little birds like the Finches will rely on our feeders.  They eat other seeds but with snow that is sort of out the question at the moment.  So I am sure they will be back for more food.

They are not gold in color yet.  They will molt in a couple of months.  That is the mating season, late spring.  So they molt from a sort of dingy brown and grey bird to beautiful golden bird.  But until mating season they will congregate in flocks and feed on the Niger seed.  When the start to molt they start to compete for the females and the flocks break up.  For about month they continue to feed but then gradually break off.

They are off forming their families.  Some migrate north, others stay in the neighborhood.  But they become rare to see.  There is more food for them as spring develops and they are off gathering food and just stop feeding on the Niger seed.  It is an annual cycle.

Finches are signals of coming spring.  But alas for the next week or so, we will have more snow and rain and cool to cold temperatures.  It is reading 25 degrees right now and will drop some more as the day goes on. 

Soon the roads will be very slick with the snow.  Texans will go crazy and  car crashes will be come common.  We hunker down and rarely go out.