Towheeblog

Finchley Downs may sound like a London suburb, but it is simply a description of our garden feeders this morning.  We had four species of finch come down from the trees to dine.

When the female Lesser Goldfinch showed up she did not mix with any of the rest.  In one of the above shots you see the sparrow, looking like a behemoth next to the tiny finches.

We still have a lingering Golden-crowned Sparrow.  Each morning I awake and wonder, “Is this the day the siskins will have departed during the night?”  Right now they dominate in terms of number and personality.  Been over a week since I last saw a warbler in our garden.  Not right habitat for the warblers that breed around here.

I’ve been seeing White-crowned Sparrows lately.  One singing yesterday at Joe Dancer (pictured above);  today one on an electric wire at entrance to Red Ridge Farms in Dundee Hills.  Not much further up the hill was a covey of quail at entrance to White Rose Estate vineyard.

At Joe Dancer lately I’ve been seeing a pair of Canada  Geese grazing and lazing along the river.  Here’s the gander, watching me:

820 NW 19th Street, McMinnville, Yamhill, Oregon, US
May 2, 2020
12 species

Eurasian Collared-Dove  X
Vaux’s Swift  X
Downy Woodpecker  1
California Scrub-Jay  1
Black-capped Chickadee  1
European Starling  9
House Finch  3–mated pair plus juvenile
Pine Siskin  12
Lesser Goldfinch  1
American Goldfinch  4
Golden-crowned Sparrow  1
Spotted Towhee  2–mated pair