A couple of months ago I posted an entry lamenting the fact my new squirrel-proof bird feeders weren’t attracting very many birds. I was use to having cardinals and a variety of other songbirds feasting year round. Always in search of a design that would deter the squirrels, I finally happened on one that closes the feeding holes when anything heavier than a bird gets on it. It worked for the squirrels. Only problem was, I discovered the fat cardinals were almost too heavy as well. They did better with the tray type feeders (which might as well scream “come get it” to the squirrels).
Just when I was about to give up hope, along came the goldfinches. Hundreds of them!! I rarely look out my window and see any fewer than 50 at a time! They’re just messy enough with their eating that some seed gets scattered on the ground which keeps the dove and cardinals happy. All the activity has drawn a few other varieties back to the feeders, too.
Attention-drawing activity is not always a good thing, though. I noticed all of them rapidly scattering this morning. Expecting to see a dog trotting by, a movement across the yard caught my eye instead. There sat the culprit in a tree: a red-tailed hawk. Certainly a beautiful sight to zoom in on with my binoculars, but please…. stay away from my birds!!
- Kelly
- Making my way through the ups and downs of life, holding fast to my favorite Bible verse: "For we walk by faith, not by sight." ~2 Corinthians 5:7. I began blogging in earnest at Yahoo360 on October 24, 2005. (briefly using LiveJournal and blog-city prior to that) In June 2008 I moved to Blogger. I'm now at WordPress where I hope to remain.
4 comments:
Kelly, what a great visual.
We had a whole tree full of cardinals in our back yard a couple of weeks ago, a welcome sight amid all this cold we've had.
oH WOW!! Love the images you portrayed! You know me and my birds! LOL!
On this REALLY cold day my feeders, as I glance out my window while typing, are full to overflowing as is the ground beneath the feeding tree! Right now, most of the doves are full and just all puffed up, scattered around the ground or under bushes, trying to keep warm.
No goldfinches, just various sparrows, wrens, cardinals, Jays and my ever-present and favorite doves.
Kelly,
I, too appreciated the images of the birds which you evoked in your post. Fiery Spirit has a couple of blackbirds who live permanently in her garden. I don't have a garden but yesterday I was glad to see the geese again at the canal where I live, because I had missed them. And a few weeks ago I saw four swans.
Raven
Kelly, even after a couple weeks of feeding the birds, I've been pleased to see that the goldfinches are getting 'golder'. Spring is coming!
On a side note, my sister, when she was living in a nursing home, was sitting on a patio watching a bunny hopping in the yard. The elderly residents watched the bunny and talked about how lucky they were to live next to a field where they could watch 'mother nature'. Then a hawk swooped down out of nowhere, snatched that struggling bunny, and flew away. She said that they went inside after that, being just about fed up with mother nature.
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