An Afternoon with Finches – Delmar Sunflower Project – St. Louis – With a Thought on Vincent Van Gogh

I think that there is a reason that the artist Van Gogh was so fascinated with sunflowers. They present so many shapes and textures and colors; they present an ever changing subject, as they grow from seedlings, to presenting vivid green buds which bloom into flowers of such astonishing yellows, sometimes flecked with white, which then dry into a palette of sunset oranges, and finally to the brown hues of autumn and decay. The face of a mature sunflower, itself, bears long contemplation with its cover of tiny flower like structures which hide the seeds, so precisely and concentrically packed.

I do not know if the finches appreciate their geometry, but they sure do appreciate their seeds, sometimes using the back of a sunflower as a makeshift table, leaving the empty shells strewn upon it. I only have pictures of male finches here, but there were females as well and some doves, dragonflies, and a sighting through the viewfinder, though not a photographic capture, of a hummingbird. It seems the time of the bees has largely passed but there were several still, well, busily doing their duty for the hive.