Sunday, August 24, 2008

Thistle and Goldfinch for Green Thumb Sunday


Thistle and Goldfinch for Green Thumb Sunday


dried thistle flower gone to seed




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The last couple of Sundays have featured Thistle and it's life-cycle from bloom to seed.

The seeds were still intact in last week's post, and I promised to show how they were dispersed in this week's entry.

Well - here's the guilty party - this innocent looking little American Goldfinch.

He perches his little self on the dried pod, and methodically pulls out the fluff to get to the little black seed on the end. Once he eats the seed, the fluff is discarded until it piles up like in the first Thistle post.

Those plants are full of thorns - you can easily see them in the photo above - but his little feet must be immune to them - he was flitting all through those plants.

The seeds pass through his system and he drops them as he does his business, and the life-cycle of the Thistle begins again.

I wish I could have been closer or had a longer lens to get a better shot of these little birds. They were very quick and skittish, so I apologize for the not too sharp, far away image.

I hope you enjoyed this series of photos. Thistle is also known as Milk Thistle, so perhaps you can guess what was growing prolifically alongside them. If not, come back next week and I'll show you!










8 comments:

  1. The photo doesn't show up for me, so I'll have to check later. Happy GTS anyway!
    Aiyana

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  2. lovely pic I love goldfinches and will remember to plant some thistles for them to feed on

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  3. I love Goldfinches! I have filled my feeder with Thistle many times to attract them... I never thought about the whole process when you didn't buy it at the store. :-) Thanks for the great posts showing us the stages!

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  4. HI Aiyana - I have got the website fixed now. It's always something - thanks for stopping by!

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  5. Rosemary - they are quite thorny and prolific but also quite beautiful!

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  6. Angie - those seeds are so small, I wonder how many plants it takes to fill a bag! Thanks for stopping by!

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  7. What a pretty bird. We have several finch species here, too, and they all like seeds!

    Bobbie

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  8. Kathy, this is very cool and interesting, I love goldfinches, got a cool pic of one flying, very pretty bird, nicely captured Kathy.

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