{"id":116386,"date":"2023-09-28T03:31:00","date_gmt":"2023-09-28T09:31:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/?p=116386"},"modified":"2024-09-01T03:56:30","modified_gmt":"2024-09-01T08:56:30","slug":"male-lesser-goldfinch-under-a-leafy-umbrella","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2023\/09\/28\/male-lesser-goldfinch-under-a-leafy-umbrella\/","title":{"rendered":"Male Lesser Goldfinch Under A Leafy Umbrella"},"content":{"rendered":"

Having fast reflexes and being able to stop my Jeep quickly helped me photograph this male Lesser Goldfinch under a leafy umbrella three days ago.<\/p>\n

\"AdultAdult male Lesser Goldfinch under a leaf umbrella \u2013 Nikon D500, f8, 1\/800, ISO 500, +1.7 EV, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

When I spotted the goldfinch at the top of the tree, I realized I needed to respond to the situation swiftly. There have been too many times in the past when a slow response resulted in me missing opportunities with birds and animals.<\/p>\n

Some of those missed opportunities still haunt me a bit. Even a delay of a second or two can lead to missed shots.<\/p>\n

I stopped my Jeep, put it in park, and within a second, I had the bird in my viewfinder. Since I had been holding my camera on my lap, I didn’t need to reach for it.<\/p>\n

Once I locked onto the bird, I took a short series of photos before the finch took flight.<\/p>\n

I’m not sure how I was able to get sharp photos of the goldfinch because I was laughing out loud. I could see the leafy umbrella through my viewfinder, and that struck my funny bone. Sometimes, it doesn’t take much to make me laugh; just ask the people who know me well. I even laugh in my sleep, and quite often I don’t know why.<\/p>\n

But the Lesser Goldfinch<\/span><\/a> under the leafy umbrella did make me laugh. That was partly because there was a bluebird sky without a single cloud. Not a chance of rain. Then I thought about the finch using the leaves as a parasol to protect itself from the bright sun. For some reason, that thought just made me laugh harder.<\/p>\n

Life with laughter is<\/em> good.<\/p>\n

Mia<\/p>\n

Click here<\/span><\/a> to see more of my Lesser Goldfinch photos plus facts and information about this species.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Having fast reflexes and being able to stop my Jeep quickly helped me photograph this male Lesser Goldfinch under a leafy umbrella three days ago.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":116383,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27,1022,697,7795,26],"tags":[4004,970,4897,4620,3504,3495,6198,6199,5679,6583,7798,4062,4094,4104,4018,7796,14386,4095],"class_list":["post-116386","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-avian","category-davis-county-utah","category-farmington-bay-wma","category-lesser-goldfinches","category-utah","tag-adult","tag-autumn","tag-branch","tag-fall","tag-finch","tag-finches","tag-goldfinch","tag-goldfinches","tag-leaf","tag-leaves","tag-lesser-goldfinch","tag-male","tag-marsh","tag-perched","tag-sky","tag-spinus-psaltria","tag-umbrella","tag-wetlands"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/lesser-goldfinch-male-autumn-mia-mcpherson-1710.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p11Mom-uhc","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":74982,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2020\/10\/29\/male-lesser-goldfinches-and-common-sunflower-seeds\/","url_meta":{"origin":116386,"position":0},"title":"Male Lesser Goldfinches And Common Sunflower Seeds","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"October 29, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Yesterday opportunity knocked when several Lesser Goldfinches flew in to knosh on wild sunflowers seeds near a road at Farmington Bay WMA.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Male Lesser Goldfinch lifting off, Farmington Bay WMA, Davis County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/lesser-goldfinch-male-sunflowers-mia-mcpherson-9714.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/lesser-goldfinch-male-sunflowers-mia-mcpherson-9714.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/lesser-goldfinch-male-sunflowers-mia-mcpherson-9714.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/lesser-goldfinch-male-sunflowers-mia-mcpherson-9714.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":117113,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2023\/10\/17\/male-lesser-goldfinch-images\/","url_meta":{"origin":116386,"position":1},"title":"Male Lesser Goldfinch Images","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"October 17, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"I was thrilled to take several male Lesser Goldfinch images on my last trip to Farmington Bay WMA. It was a bright, sunny day, and I was enjoying it and myself.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Male Lesser Goldfinch perched on a greasewood, Farmington Bay WMA, Davis County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/lesser-goldfinch-adult-male-mia-mcpherson-4279.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/lesser-goldfinch-adult-male-mia-mcpherson-4279.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/lesser-goldfinch-adult-male-mia-mcpherson-4279.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/lesser-goldfinch-adult-male-mia-mcpherson-4279.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":60573,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2019\/09\/29\/lesser-goldfinch-perched-on-greasewood-at-farmington-bay-wma\/","url_meta":{"origin":116386,"position":2},"title":"Lesser Goldfinch Perched on Greasewood At Farmington Bay WMA","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"September 29, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Until three days ago I really haven't taken any decent images of Lesser Goldfinches that weren't at bird feeders but that changed when this one landed on a greasewood in front of me at Farmington Bay WMA.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Lesser Goldfinch perched on Greasewood, Farmington Bay WMA, Davis County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/lesser-goldfinch-greasewood-mia-mcpherson-0001.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/lesser-goldfinch-greasewood-mia-mcpherson-0001.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/lesser-goldfinch-greasewood-mia-mcpherson-0001.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/lesser-goldfinch-greasewood-mia-mcpherson-0001.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":115800,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2023\/09\/11\/one-chonky-american-goldfinch\/","url_meta":{"origin":116386,"position":3},"title":"One Chonky American Goldfinch","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"September 11, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"When I was at Farmington Bay WMA last week, I had a chonky American Goldfinch fly in and land on a greasewood in front of me. Of course, I took photos of it.","rel":"","context":"In "American Goldfinches"","block_context":{"text":"American Goldfinches","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/finches-and-allies\/american-goldfinches\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Chonky American Goldfinch, Farmington Bay WMA, Davis County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/american-goldfinch-summer-chonky-mia-mcpherson-9428.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/american-goldfinch-summer-chonky-mia-mcpherson-9428.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/american-goldfinch-summer-chonky-mia-mcpherson-9428.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/american-goldfinch-summer-chonky-mia-mcpherson-9428.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":115787,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2023\/09\/10\/nature-center-parking-lot-lesser-goldfinch\/","url_meta":{"origin":116386,"position":4},"title":"Nature Center Parking Lot Lesser Goldfinch","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"September 10, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"I photographed this Lesser Goldfinch from the nature center parking lot of Farmington Bay WMA last week. 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