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Monday, June 27, 2011

A Tale of Three Finches

For a long time, Katherine has been wanting to attract goldfinches to our feeders, they are her favorite. Jay’s favorite is the Robin Red-Breast, mine is the Red-Winged Blackbird, both of whom regularly avail themselves for our viewing pleasure, but the goldfinch is far more elusive.

We have friends who have a plenteous amount of goldfinches, not 5-7 miles from us. Katherine was so in awe when she saw them on our friends’ feeder, we have been trying to figure out the best way to get them to come, without spending a load on feeders, or special food. They are kinda picky and we only had one on a feeder a couple summers ago.

Ok, so enough of that rambling and onto the real story, you get the point, I think. So, yesterday morning, as we readied ourselves to go to church for the parish feast day, I looked out of the front door and what do I see? A goldfinch. She was sitting there hopping toward the feeder, with hopes of black sunflower seed, I daresay. I called Katherine over to see and told her to be quiet and slow as she came. She was so excited! We listened to the song and we watched as she hopped onto the feeder and then up into the tree after a sparrow decided to ‘share’.

We gathered our things and kept hearing the song of the goldfinch as we made our way to the car. What seemed like only one goldfinch was, in fact, three! They came out, one at a time, and they flew off. We thought that was all we would get, but were mistaken. From tree to rooftop to tree again, we were being followed. A little male goldfinch perched himself in the tree next to where we were parked and we kept being regaled with the sound of the delightful birds who came to send us off.

You can be assured that our feeders are nearly always full of birds, considering I was awakened this morning at 4 a.m. as they fed, which wasn’t the first time, but when they came, the feeders were strangely abandoned, aside from that sparrow. It wasn’t the time of day, since birds will eat whenever there is food and shove each other around. There isn’t any rhyme or reason for things to have been the way they were. I tell Katherine that they came to wish her a happy feast day, especially for her. How more wonderful that there were 3, though seeming as one bird, as a symbol of the Trinity.

If you can’t tell, I think it was pretty fantastic and I am so grateful for such a gift for Katherine. They really are a beautiful bird, whose song seems to float upon the wind while they pitter-pat in your heart a little.

Sometime, I may tell you the story of the dance of the Red-Winged Blackbird on the fence, or the baby bird on the bench.

4 comments:

Mary said...

That's awesome!! I agree that it was God's gift to her!!
We have loads of goldfinches, but no in the summer. They LOVE nyger (thistle) seed, and especially seem to like the finch socks - the white mesh bags. Sometimes they are covering it!!! I LOVE them, too!!

Xen Xen said...

We have a sock, but keeping it full can be a challenge because we are some of the only people in the neighborhood who feed birds, so it can get pricey to fill that stuff up! I got some new seed today to see if it makes any difference.

Martha said...

Happy parish feast day to you...when we lived in Brandon, VT, gosh from 1984-1989 our mission parish there was named "The Holy New Martyrs of Russia" and that was our parish feast day, too! The story of the goldfinches is great. How exciting! My parents have had echinacea growing in their front yard that attracted beautiful goldfinches and purple finches, too. They like thistle, too.

heather west said...

That is completely tubular. I love hearing stories like this where the little kiddos are so encouraged by God's very tangible presence.