When I planted my first Pandemic Garden in Spring 2020 I had no idea what was in store for me. I was happy to be outside in the sun rather than cooped up in the house worried about catching Covid.
That first year with the gardens I only planted a few perennials and filled in zinnias and sunflowers wherever I could. With six flower beds there were a lot of seeds planted as I had not thought about starting seeds indoors when I decided to start my gardens.
Much to my surprise and delight, I found the sunflowers and zinnias not only attracted bees, they also attracted goldfinch and some tufted titmouse on occasion too. This in turn kept me busy out in the yard with my camera taking photos of the bountiful bees and sunflower seed foraging goldfinch.
Goldfinch can often be a little skittish and will fly off if I get in too close with the camera, but on this day, when I took this series of photographs, the goldfinch in the photos was far too interested in the seeds from these gorgeous deep red velvet queen Sunflowers.
Note the bee flying in to get a little pollen just under the top right sunflower in the photograph above.
I had the impression that the goldfinch was keeping its eye on me the entire time I was taking these photos. And he also was clearly not about to give up that seed in his beak.
Gulp… That seed was swallowed in an instant.
Now he seemed to be studying the situation…
I felt as though I was becoming a distraction for the goldfinch and started to step back a little.
This final photograph in this series makes me think that the goldfinch is pondering the human with camera in front of her face…
I hope you all enjoyed this series of photos. This Spring I didn’t get a chance to put in my zinnia and sunflower seeds and though my gardens are now filled in with many more perennials than they had in the first few years, I have missed seeing the goldfinch pilfering the sunflower seeds.
This summer got hot early and it was dry, my garden reports fell by the wayside. With my shoulder injury it became too hard to water the gardens and walking became my summer past time. Occasionally I would find a goldfinch or two in my lavender bee balm, mining those for seeds. Who knows what next year has in store for my gardens. I hope the goldfinch forgive me for not planting sunflowers and zinnias for them this year.
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As I like to say, “Be in the moment and go with the flow.”
I enjoy your photo essays and look forward to them. Thank you!
Beautiful!