Sweet Gums and Goldfinches

     A few days ago, I came upon a planted row of five tall sweet gum trees here in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania.  Each tree was loaded with hundreds of brown, bristly seed balls that were hanging decoratively on their twig moorings.  Each of those balls was amply pitted where tiny seeds fell out to the ground.  As I drove by those sweet gums, scores of small birds rose from the ground under the trees and landed on those same trees' twigs.  I stopped to look at those birds with binoculars and saw that most of them were American goldfinches in winter plumage, with a few dark-eyed juncos mixed in.  Sunlight added to the beauties of the leafless trees, seed balls and birds.
     American goldfinches are common in Lancaster County through the year.  But I seldom see so many of them in one place at one time as this gathering of them.  Many of the goldfinches clung up-side-down to the seed balls in the trees as they ate seeds from the many holes in them.  Others of that feathery clan ate sweet gum seeds that fell to the ground.
     Every time a vehicle passed the sweet gums, scores of goldfinches flew up into those trees.  I estimated there were more than a hundred goldfinches among those sweet gums.  A few minutes after each vehicle passed by, many of those birds dropped to the ground to continue feeding on fallen sweet gum seeds.  Goldfinches have an up and down, roller-coaster flight, chirping as they go.  They were up and down among the trees several times during the hour I watched them.
     Though not as striking as male goldfinches in yellow and black, summer breeding plumage, goldfinches in winter are handsome in their winter feathering.  They are basically olive, with a little yellow on their throats and chests and two white bars on each wing.  Males and females, by the way, look petty much alike.
     Some winters, other kinds of sparrows and finches eat the seeds of sweet gums.  One winter, I found several common redpolls, a small, gray bird with a pink cap and throat that breeds on the high Arctic tundra, eating seeds from a sweet gum in our yard.  Redpolls and other finches and grosbeaks from the Far North are irruptive migrants, which means they only come south during some winters, but in large numbers.  Their migrations depend on available seeds and berries in the north.  Pine siskins, which are goldfinch-like, and purple finches are some other irruptive species this far south some winters.              
     Local Carolina chickadees and black-capped chickadees also eat sweet gum seeds in winter.  Those tiny seeds are the right size for those small birds that also cling to the decorative balls to eat their seeds.
     Watch maturing sweet gum trees in winter to see the variety of small birds that eat their seeds at that time.  Those small birds are lovely and interesting to experience.