Feathery Friday: American Goldfinches

Joseph D. Grant Park is in the eastern hills of Santa Clara County, about 40 minute drive from the house. For some reason, I hadn’t visited it in years, and so one day, looking to get out and about for a while, I decided to go and explore it. It is a wonderful park, not terribly built up, with historical buildings and a lot of mature trees and foliage in it (it narrowly avoided being burnt in the wildfires we had in 2020, and there are areas quite near it that were burnt badly).

The Ranger Station is in a historic building on the grounds, and next to the station is a small rose garden, and in the garden is a water fountain. A ready source of water is a big thing for birds, so if you locate on and sit down and be patient, you can often find a wide variety of species passing in front of you as they come to drink and bathe. This fountain was no exception.

And that’s where I found these Goldfinches; the bay area has three goldfinch species, the most common being Lesser and seen everywhere, less common is American, but still fairly easy to find, and the third being Lawrence’s, which generally is findable mostly in the less urban edges of the county (and in fact, I saw them here this day as well).

It was a pleasant day out and away from urban life, and this is a fun species to sit and watch, and I think this is a nice photo showing off the bird’s features and coloration quite well. All in all, a good shot.

Gear Notes: Fuji X-T3, 100-400 + 1.4TC @ 560mm, 1/400 @F/9, ISO 800