Feeding the birds

[Saturday, January 03, 2009 ]--taken from my other blog

Feeding the birds The gold finches, chickadees, and every now and then the titmice will show up feeding on the sunflower seed in the feeders. I think the goldfinches bug the titmice. Anyway, we have the mixture of seeds to throw on the ground near the tree, but not under. The doves and other birds eat that. Every once in a while, you'll actually have a sparrow sitting on the feeder. It's pretty weird to see, like its weird to see a hippo eating meat or a deer stomping birds and eating their skulls for calcium....but it happens(they showed it on that there tv). On the ground, you'll have the various sparrows(even the ones that race across the yard), the doves, the cardinal sometimes, and others. Each type of bird has its own rhythm and personality pattern. One day a while back, a grackle showed up and had breakfast and lunch with the doves. The lone grackle and the doves looked like they all ate together all the time. No fuss. Grackles are sorta like a cross between cowbirds and crows...with whitish eyes. They're not as big as crows but you could mistake it for a crow. It's eyes are whitish-yellow.....and they have that coloration of dark purple/green tint around their head/neck that changes color depending the lighting. Really, if you see a bird that looks like a crow, but has white eyes and isn't as big as a crow.....its probably a grackle. The wrens are the funniest birds by far. They don't eat with the other birds at all...but they do find some crackers,crushed peanuts or other items that I throw out sometimes. We've had them put nests inside the garage(they found a way to get in and out)....inside flower pots on the porch that we walk and sit by....and they aren't afraid of you. They'll put up a fuss until they get used to you being around. Even then, those birds have about a million different calls they use. Wrens are such characters. About a week ago, I heard some noise in the garage, and it was a wren knocking crap over. I think it had been staying in an old nest inside a toolbox. I may take some pictures of one nest soon. Wrens will destroy butterflies. There was a butterfly swarm last summer, saw all kinds of wings laying around. The crows found the shell peanuts I threw out. They were breaking them open and getting the goodies inside. Those birds are characters too.....I wish I had a pet crow, but I heard its illegal to own an American Crow. That's why people buy crows from other countries...those white and black crows from down South are legal. The chickadees and goldfinches and even the titmice see me go out in the yard with the bags of seed. They fly off but don't go far. They wait until I'm done, and as I'm walking away....they'll fly back and start feeding before I get to the steps. I think one was in the tree the other day, because I had birdcrap on the back of my shirt.....that's a fine howdy-doo(pun intended). Ya don't ever want to look up tree with your mouth open. The doves, they're a little more spookable. I'm just glad we don't have pigeonS like in the city. Although, one time when I lived in St. Albans, our neighbor had a pigeon show up, which was pretty neat. They would throw down bread and other things for it. It stayed around their house for a few weeks and then one day must have flown back downtown. Sometimes its nice to sit on the porch in winter, in the quiet....while the chickadees or other birds eat. Out of the silence, the little crunching sounds appear....along with their calls....and everything goes back into silence. Silence before, silence after.......aside from the thinking that might go on.