Saturday, January 7, 2012

For the Birds

I wouldn't really say it's a hobby, but another "like" of mine that has fallen to the wayside in the recent past is feeding the birds.  We don't have any fancy birds around here.  I attribute that to an abundance of forest preserves around our neighborhood.  If you had miles of open and quiet paradise, why would you want to hang out in my little plot of world with noisy kids and smelly cars?  Or noisy cars and smelly kids.  Either way.  But even if it is just a collection of house sparrows, I love watching the birds out the window.  And when it is warm enough to have windows and doors open, the twittering of birds in the morning and evening is one of my favorite sounds.

It has become an unfortunate habit that I'm very diligent feeding the birds for months at a time, and then when we run out of seed, many months go by before I start up again.  It's not that I don't want to.  I look longingly at the empty feeders almost daily.  I just let it fall to the bottom of the priority list.

Once I fill the feeders, it always takes several days for the birds to come back. I envision a funny little scene where the elder birds are perched in a nearby tree, feathers ruffled and squawking.  Then the younger whippersnapper birds come over, an argument ensues, with the elder birds saying "She can't be trusted!" and the younger birds responding "But it looks so good!"  And the younger, rebel birds always win out, as they eventually come back and empty the feeders within a day or two.

So today, a new finch feeder to replace the one ruined in last summer's storm, a large bag of birdseed, and a new pack of suet have been lovingly
set out in the yard.  This blog has been motivating me to keep up with the "likes" I have left behind, so I hope to at least keep feeding the birds through the winter.  I can't keep upsetting the elder birds, otherwise they'll probably start eating up all the springtime vegetable seeds in the garden just to spite me.


2 comments:

  1. I never cared about feeding the birds until last spring when we had the birdfeeder in the front yard and we see the birds out the living room bay window. The kids were so enthusiastic! I even used a couple books to try and identify some of the birds for them.

    Have you ever used a hummingbird feeder? We had a fair bit of traffic from hummingbirds for a few weeks until I let the feeder run dry. Apparently hummingbirds are unforgiving. You stop feeding, they don't come back. Suppose I'll try again this spring.

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  2. We did try one, last spring I think, but I think we got it out a little late in the migration, and it mostly just attracted bees. If you remember, tell me when you're getting ready to put yours out this year, I'll do the same.

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