Red Car Property: Lesser Goldfinch

Photo: Diane Edwardson, April 3, 2013.  One day last week, a flash of yellow caught my eye on the Lake View Ave side of the Red Car Property, just north of Rose Scharlin. (Click on photos to enlarge.)

Thanks to Biologist Dan Cooper, who identified this as a Lesser Goldfinch, "a pretty common bird around town."  Cooper leads Cooper Ecotours, customized tours of birding hot spots in the Los Angeles area. 

Photo: Diane Edwardson, April 3, 2013.  I'm not a bird watcher, but the out-of-the-ordinary catches my eye: color, shape, birds of prey.  These photos were the first time I've documented the bird on the Red Car Property - or at all for that matter. 

I managed to snap a few quick frames of this bird I'd never seen before, between passing cars on their way to drop of kids at Rose Scharlin Nursery School.  It wasn't easy to control a dog on a leash panicking over oncoming cars, while trying to shoot a tiny bird who's balanced on a dandelion stem, 15 yards away, with oncoming traffic in both directions, on a dirt road. 

Learn more about Lesser Goldfinches: Cornell Lab of Ornithology

Visit the Audubon Center in Debs Park