American goldfinch

Eating seeds this afternoon among the trees at a nursery in Ladner:

American goldfinch, female, in drab end-of-season colours.

I saw this bird, and took her photo. When the camera clicked, she, and half a dozen other goldfinches that I hadn't seen, flew out of the trees, over a ditch and a fence to a stand of blackberries and other weedy shrubs. And there, I could hear them chattering away, but strain my eyes though I might, I couldn't see the least trace of them.