A CHARM OF GOLDFINCHES

I’ve never seen An Exaltation of Larks (except for the book by James Lipton), but have seen a vast murmuration of thousands of starlings in early winter over 6-lane Route 3 here in Massachusetts. (How do they dip and weave in their Moebius bends and still avoid sending their neighbors crashing to the ground?)

But we had a new experience yesterday in the brush between the garden and the lower pond, as a mob of several dozen still-gold finches came crashing all about us in an exuberant rapture of activity, weaving magically among the branches and twittering loudly among themselves. 

We had no camera with us, so had to search the internet for an image that most closely resembled what we saw. (Thanks to the anonymous online photographer who had a camera at the ready!)

Were the goldfinches celebrating some midsummer ritual, clamoring for the rich supply of local bugs, or as our local bird guru has wondered, anxious parents taking young ones out for their first drive (and hoping they wouldn’t accidentally take out every mailbox on the street?)

Lipton also calls this a “glister” of goldfinches. And with the bears of Wall Street advising that we all invest in gold now, we can imagine no more rewarding investment than the several minutes we were flashed by this mob.