This was a gray icky weekend – why is it that we have bright clear skies during the work week, then cold fronts over the weekends?  It’s a Florida winter pattern!  So the cats and I birded from our house windows this weekend, and the pictures below were taken through the windows in the drizzle.  But we had our first of fall goldfinches!  I had been thinking that it was time to put out my niger feeder, then I looked out and saw three Painted Buntings and four American Goldfinches on my feeders.  The niger was out a few minutes later!

The goldfinches have already molted into their basic plumage before they arrive in Florida. So we see their drab olive colors until April, when they become bright yellow just before they take off for their breeding grounds. But their calls are sweet and cheerful, despite their drab plumage. Doesn’t he look cute next to the bird finial on my feeder?

My Painted Buntings have been a little slow to gather this fall. Or maybe I was just spoiled at the end of last spring, when I had at least a dozen Painteds in my yard at once. This year I had a male show up on October 11, and I saw him once or twice a week. Then he was joined by two females around the first of November. This weekend I counted two males and two greenies. They are pretty timid and I haven’t tried getting out my bird blind yet this year.

As I type, my first of fall Yellow-Rumped Warblers just flew into one of my crape myrtles.  It’s getting to be prime bird photography time again – the weather had better cooperate better next weekend!!! :)