Friday, August 17, 2012

Waiting for a bird..

North American Goldfinch lit upon purple coneflowers in my garden.
Terrible terrible picture, I know, but I finally got a shot of this little fellow who has been visiting my garden all summer long. I have waited patiently for him, since my husband and I first saw him at the end of May, lightly holding onto a fresh new coneflower in my garden. Some days, I was very methodical about it all...setting my camera on the tripod and setting just the right angle and all that (though I am a far cry from a photographer!) But he wouldn't come. At least not while I was there and ready for him. Several times I would open the back door from the kitchen and walk out onto the porch to take Lily, our golden retriever puppy out in the yard and I would see his golden body through a corner of my eye, softly lit upon a flower, head down, nibbling a drying seedhead and as soon as I could move to turn toward him, he was off, flying deep into the green of a neighbors tree. As the summer wore on and the air became still and heavy, and the neighboring yards quiet, but for the chirping of the cicada's, he would come to eat and stay. Even my walking onto the porch didn't frighten him off. I had stopped trying to photograph him weeks before, stopped trying to be the bird papparazzi...let him eat in peace, I said to myself. Let me just enjoy him, let him enjoy too. Except for that one last day that I thought I'd just see...see if he came back...and see if I could get a photo...because, like everything else, memories fade and I wanted to remember this summer and this little visitor...and all the waiting. 

And he did not disappoint. 

Thank you, goldfinch.

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