goldfinches and trumpet creeper

[rainbowgardener]

If you've been reading my posts for awhile, you have heard (seen?) me talk about the humonguous trumpet creeper vine that keeps trying to swallow our house up. It grows completely over the (second story) window in front of my computer. Kind of nice actually because it shades it from summer sun, but lets the light in now. Anyway having been covered with blossoms in the summer, the vine is now covered with long, dried seed pods. Watching out my window, I noticed several goldfinches working away at those seed pods, wriggling the seeds out. They did it pretty steadily for hours. Great fun to watch them just a few inches away on the other side of the window!

I didn't even know those seeds were food! I was glad to see it... the garden is covered with snow. We do put bird seed out, but there are limited natural sources right now, so its nice to know they can eat the trumpet creeper seed. It is an extremely prolific seed producer, so there's probably food there to last them all winter! Maybe all along the goldfinches have been why those thousands of seeds (thankfully!) don't produce thousands of new vines.