124
I thought it was Japanese beetles that were stripping many of my zinnia flowers bald, but it turns out it’s the sweet little goldfinches causing this particular mayhem.
I noticed some of my zinnias bobbing wildly on a windless afternoon which was odd, and that’s when I spotted 3 of the little yellow birds sitting on the flowers plucking petals. Goldfinches have done this in the past, but it’s usually just a flower here or there. Right now there are dozens of balding or totally-bald zinnias in my yard.
I wonder what they are doing with all those petals? Anything? I haven’t been able to get a closer look through binoculars to see if they are just flinging the petals or eating them or carrying them off.
2 comments
Hi, Em! Mom had once shared your blog address with me and I haven’t visited too often — but do love your pictures and entries! I finally figured out how to put a comment here, lol. That is crazy about the finches. Marlin takes care of our bird feeders, and when we had those torrential rains, and were gone, the feed got wet — and those fickle finches have left for better buffet servers, I guess. We now haven’t seen them for awhile, even though he has replaced with fresh seed. Hopefully they will be back.
They should come back! They are nesting right now (they nest later than most songbirds), so they are probably busy collecting insects for their hatchlings. It’s been a bad year to try to keep feeder seed dry. I’ve been bringing my feeders into the garage when I know it’s going to rain. It’s getting tiring since it rains about every 2 or 3 days! 🙂
Comments are closed.