The Morning Porch » goldfinches

Half molted now, a patchwork of yellow...

Dave Bonta — Sat, 14 Apr 2012 13:47:56 +0000

Half molted now, a patchwork of yellow and green, the goldfinch goes twittering past the crabapple’s half-open blooms.

Dave Bonta — Thu, 08 Mar 2012 16:27:04 +0000

Warmth without shadows, the gossip of goldfinches like a single bright thread. The rabbit doesn’t chance a dash across the yard.

Dave Bonta — Sun, 04 Dec 2011 16:15:23 +0000

The sound of an altercation among the goldfinches—like a dozen jazz soloists playing at once. The only cloud in the sky finds the sun.

Dave Bonta — Tue, 22 Nov 2011 14:52:54 +0000

Fog. High in a skeletal birch, the silhouettes of ten goldfinches are almost the right size for leaves, moving in their own slow wind.

Dave Bonta — Wed, 17 Aug 2011 14:08:49 +0000

A male and female goldfinch glean seeds from a tall bull thistle. She eats in silence while he in his loud yellow suit chatters on and on.

Dave Bonta — Sun, 10 Jul 2011 13:46:41 +0000

Goldfinches twitter in the tops of the locusts at sunrise, bright as beacons. A yellow hoverfly watches me from four inches away.

Dave Bonta — Sun, 03 Jul 2011 13:36:37 +0000

Goldfinch in the garden: a coneflower stem breaks under his weight and he moves to another, probing the dark centers for a hint of seed.

Dave Bonta — Wed, 13 Apr 2011 15:01:18 +0000

Incessant rain. A chitter of goldfinches halfway through their molt: part green, part yellow, like spicebush or forsythia in reverse.

Dave Bonta — Sun, 05 Dec 2010 14:16:35 +0000

That first snow still cloaks the frozen earth. When the wind dies, I can hear the 75 finches at my parents’ birdfeeder, a twittering bedlam.

Dave Bonta — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 12:34:13 +0000

A goldfinch gone green lands among walnut leaves that have gone yellow. Below, a juvenile red-bellied woodpecker, nape turning orange.