a troubling

I found this feather on the lawn, while doing some gardening for my mother. Earlier I'd been watching some Goldfinches on her bird feeders. She'd put out some tiny, black Nyger seeds especially for them. Goldfinches hang around in small groups. There are several collective nouns for a group of Goldfinches; a charm, a chirm, a drum, a troubling. They really are no trouble in your garden beyond a lively clamour they set up, you'd be lucky to have them visit, they are beautiful, but I like the sound of a troubling of Goldfinches. They are small birds with red faces, white cheek bars, black caps, buff coloured bodies, and black wings with a brilliant yellow flash, and some black and white striped wing feathers. So this found feather may belong to one of them. It's tiny, I should have put a 10p coin in the picture for scale.

I never used to like bird feathers, would never have picked one up, I thought they were unclean, I'd been told that as a child, told I'd catch all manner of horrible germs from them. Well, perhaps I will but they fascinate me now and some feathers, like this one, are rather beautiful.

The photo is the author's own.