Soon I’m going to need to invent a logarithmic scale for counting goldfinches. The tiny birds have taken over my backyard and I every time I do a count the number grows exponentially.
Last Monday I was impressed to count 37 goldfinches in my yard at the same time. Four days later that number had grown to 65 and I was topping off the Nyjer feeders twice a day. Besides the Nyjer seed they were also eating sunflower hearts and peanuts and some of the birds were even hopping around on the ground looking for leftovers.
By Sunday the situation was really out of control. Every feeder was loaded with goldfinches. The moment a bird left a perch another filled its place. All afternoon my annuals and perennials were swaying wildly back and forth from the weight of the voracious creatures who were hanging from the stems and flowers. They were snarfing any dried seeds they could find, and some of the birds were yanking out and eating fresh flower petals.
By late Sunday afternoon I had counted 130 birds at one time and that was a very conservative number as I could not accurately count the ones flying around the flowerbeds fast enough. There’s no way I can keep feeding Nyjer seed to a flock that large. I went through a 20-pound bag of seed in 4 days!
I assume (pray!) that many of the birds are just filling their bellies before heading further south for the winter. Then the action will switch to the ground feeders like Dark-eyed Juncos and Mourning Doves.