The goldfinch are eating us out of house and home! A flock of the avaricious little hooligans flew in a few days ago, presumably pushing further south, and covered the feeder, shouldering aside the resident purple finch and cardinals, who are left to watch in puckish amazement as the seed level drops perceivably. You probably knew that cardinals are a type of finch. I didn’t until I saw it in the bird book recently. I do know they can bite like the dickens, which I learned from a female cardinal who was momentarily incapacitated after flying into a window. They don’t like to be helped, either. OK, so birds aren’t all that exciting. It’s a holiday!