Autumn Colors - Birds and Blooms

This is one of the reasons I love the tangled patch of purple coneflowers that gets thicker each year. A few weeks ago we were enjoying butterflies on the flowers, and now that the petals have withered and the seed heads are the main attraction, we have goldfinches all over them. Some may remember photos I posted late last winter, when pine siskins were clinging to the coneflower seed heads in the snow. Just as the flowers have lost the brilliant color of summer, so too the goldfinches are taking on their subdued winter (nonbreeding) plumage. Together they are an appealing autumn sight.