Goldfinch Feast.

Visiting the reserve in Conwy is a bit like eating at an extravagant buffet. You know there’s a range of photographic opportunities that may vary by the season, but there’s always going to be something you can feast on. Right now there are dragonflies, of course, and still a few butterflies determined to hang in there as summer draws to a close. There are the Carneddau ponies of course, although they try to add surprise by varying their habitat so you just don’t know where you’ll find them.  Then there are the egrets and the herons, spiced up by rare appearances from the elegant a Great White. 

Today, however, just as we are sitting by the river enjoying the late afternoon sun, we hear a chatter from the banks of fluffy seed heads. Goldfinches! They are regular visitors to our garden feeders, but I’m long past rushing for my camera when they appear. Here, however, their bright red heads glowing in the sunshine against the bluest sky, it’s a very different matter. Of course they spot us and are off, but we wait and gradually there’s a return of a few foolhardy youngsters - hardly goldfinches at all until they turn and show their yellow tail feathers. We follow the chirping further along the path and find some younger birds still feeding from their frazzled parents. 

Back to the photographic feast, and as with all buffets, the temptation is to eat too much - so here my memory card is full to bursting. I have, as always taken far too many shots and struggle to decide which one to blip. Should it be the parent and demanding chick, or the juvenile goldfinch alone on the reeds? I have no doubt that the latter is a better photo - though it really needs to be viewed large - but then it’s hard to resist demanding little birds. Inevitably one gets relegated to extras together with a couple of collages. 

Edit: after agonising over this all evening, and changing my main once from the parent-feeding-fledgling one and back, I’m now returning to my original choice! I thought I’d got over such indecision, but obviously not. Sorry …..