There's been heavy traffic at the bird feeders that are just above the koi pond and outside my kitchen window (it's a view I never get tired of). Sometimes I will glance out and see 7 or 8 pairs of cardinals on the feeders and on the ground. Cardinals are very territorial and will fight each other usually, but when the weather is this cold and the ground is covered with snow, they seem to decide mainly to ignore each other. We gets lots of different kinds of birds-cardinals, chickadees, tufted titmouse, junco's, goldfinches, purple finches and several different kinds of woodpeckers. Often we'll see a dove or two feeding on the ground under the feeders. We feed only black oil sunflower seeds because all the birds will eat them and there doesn't seem to be a lot of waste. I sometimes have sunflowers sprout in the flower beds directly under the feeders, but mainly the hulls act as mulch and disappear when the perennials come up. I buy 50 lb. bags of sunflower seeds at the feed store when picking up feed for the rest of the critters around here. We go through a lot of bags of bird feed over the course of the winter. Once I start feeding, usually in late summer or early fall, I feel a real obligation to keep the feeders full. I know that the birds come to depend on that source of nourishment. It's a reasonably inexpensive source of entertainment for me and I feel as though I'm doing a good deed. Of course, it could just be that I'm easily entertained!
Thursday, February 5, 2009
Heavy traffic
There's been heavy traffic at the bird feeders that are just above the koi pond and outside my kitchen window (it's a view I never get tired of). Sometimes I will glance out and see 7 or 8 pairs of cardinals on the feeders and on the ground. Cardinals are very territorial and will fight each other usually, but when the weather is this cold and the ground is covered with snow, they seem to decide mainly to ignore each other. We gets lots of different kinds of birds-cardinals, chickadees, tufted titmouse, junco's, goldfinches, purple finches and several different kinds of woodpeckers. Often we'll see a dove or two feeding on the ground under the feeders. We feed only black oil sunflower seeds because all the birds will eat them and there doesn't seem to be a lot of waste. I sometimes have sunflowers sprout in the flower beds directly under the feeders, but mainly the hulls act as mulch and disappear when the perennials come up. I buy 50 lb. bags of sunflower seeds at the feed store when picking up feed for the rest of the critters around here. We go through a lot of bags of bird feed over the course of the winter. Once I start feeding, usually in late summer or early fall, I feel a real obligation to keep the feeders full. I know that the birds come to depend on that source of nourishment. It's a reasonably inexpensive source of entertainment for me and I feel as though I'm doing a good deed. Of course, it could just be that I'm easily entertained!
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THAT'S what it is! A reasonably inexpensive source of entertainment - excellent train of thought! I sometimes wonder about the expense and think I should be feeding people or dogs at the shelter... but you're right - we don't go to movies, many shows...so it all works out, via the entertainment budget :-D.
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