I stood at my kitchen window this morning for at least fifteen minutes, not making a move, so that I could watch the beautiful purple finch at my feeder. I took a couple of very bad photos. But mostly I just stood perfectly still so I wouldn’t scare him away.
I love purple finches. Their song sounds sweet to me. It’s described as “rich, slurred warbling.” Finch songs include the “warbling song,” a fast, rising and falling string of 6-23 notes often sung while flocking. Males usually sing a “territory song” that begins with a few notes on the same pitch before breaking into warbling and ending with a high, emphatic note.
Enough trivia about finches! It’s probably more than you wanted to know.
The point is, watching them relaxes me immensely. It takes me out of myself and transports me into nature’s art gallery where sheer beauty abounds. I forget myself for a few minutes, leaving all my cares behind.
The Purple Finch is the bird that Roger Tory Peterson famously described as a “sparrow dipped in raspberry juice.” I love that description. It reminds me of the many hues that God uses to paint the world, colors that exist to lift us up from the mundane grays of our lives.
A wonderful escape!
God of the Sparrow 🌱 By Kathy Manis Findley 