Male Goldfinches


Mother's Day, a lovely day. We set out with a flat of seedlings and basket with garden tools and planted our 4' X 4' raised bed plot in the community garden. Our garden plot is now planted with Early Girl and Beefsteak tomato plants, Brussels sprouts, pole beans and Swiss chard seedlings. Nature Maven cannot wait for the harvest to begin, but of course I will. what choice do we have? But I am dreaming of BLTs made with homemade vegan eggplant bacon or coconut bacon (I have recipes for both), and stir-fries or green smoothies made with yummy Swiss chard.

Today our Nyjer thistle feeder was taken over by these three plump, bright, male goldfinches. There was even a little flapping as they jockeyed for position on the perches before I refilled it.

Mother Hawk Teaching Young to Fly
(photo courtesy of danspira.com)

Late this afternoon we returned home from errands to hear the high pitched scree of a young hawk. It was alternately soaring and wildly flapping its wings while keeping up a non-stop cry. Soon I saw the parent, whom I assumed was the daddy but who knows? This larger bird flew nearby confidently and silently, lending its strength and confidence to the young one, its exact copy, only downsized. We've seen these tutorial pairs many times before up here on the Pocono Plateau. Our hearts went out to that frantic juvenile until the parent came into view. All was well with the world again.

Happy Mother's Day, to all creatures great and small.