On top of the world

Goldfinches like the top of things. Fence posts, thistle heads, the last twig of a conifer. This one was singing from the highest point it could find, with a hillside of dark pines rolling away behind it into haze.

It is a tiny bird with a red face and a gold bar across the wing, and none of that shows at this distance. What shows is the posture: upright, chest out, claiming the tree. The song carried a long way in the still air.

The bird is small and the landscape is large, and I wanted it that way. A close portrait would have lost the valley.