Day 38
I have birdfeeders. Several birdfeeders. They hang from the trees in my backyard … a frog, a white gazebo, a flattened stone with a hedgehog on it, a suet cage, a basket. I smear peanut butter on my trees … I put out leftover muffins and bread. I watch in the spring (under the feeders) where the millet has taken root and baby shoots reach their way skyward.
When the kids were little we used to put lard or peanut butter on pine cones and roll them in birdseed and put them out for the birds as special gifts. We stopped doing that when I heard a friend’s dog had eaten their pinecone treats and ended up with a $1200 surgery for removing the little peanut butter/birdseed laden spiny pinecone pieces out of his intestine!
I enjoy my bird feedings … and squirrel feedings … and extra dog feedings (when they receive dropped goodies) … but recently I read an article about keeping the coyotes and foxes at bay which recommended getting rid of birdfeeders. WHAT?! Not feed the birds? Sorry, I’m not doing that. (They also recommended replacing any (4 foot) existing fence with a 6 foot fence to deter “wildlife visitations”.) Um, sorry. Just got a new fence … and it’s 4 feet … and I’ve seen a coyote jump a 6 foot fence anyway – cleared it like Bob Gaza in my high school’s high jump competition!
Anyway – coyotes and foxes be damned. I’m keeping my bird feeders … and my 3 bird baths and my butterfly bath, too (a little turtle planter with a moist sponge). And I have Moby – the bird feeder guard and wildlife deterer. Sorry neighbors – you’ve heard her barking a lot lately – at night. In the MIDDLE of the night … when the foxes (next door) are slinking around and when the coyotes have their jamborees at the park across the street. Just doing her job – keeping them out of the yard as I’m not not feeding my birds because of them.
When my kids were little I’d sing Feed the Birds (from the movie, Mary Poppins) to them when they were falling asleep. I guess feeding the birds – in one way or another – has always been something we’ve done!
Though my feeders get a lot of attention I don’t know what birds come by. I know Blue Jays, Sparrows and Robins. I actually saw a Robin in January – he must have been lost! Everyone else is just brown … flitting here and there, singing me songs of thanks from the treetops and from deep inside the fir branches. We have crows – though they usually stay at the park foraging garbage. We have, somehow, (too far from the coast) Sea Gulls! We have Junkos that are huge and really pretty with their peach breasts. (My friend, Karen, had one stuck in her sunroom one day and we eventually got it out withoug getting our eyes poked out! Yeah, THAT was fun!) We have a lot of birds … I just don’t know what they are.
Which makes me think that a lot of other people DO know what kind of birds they are feeding. Have you looked at birdfood lately? There are 100 different varieties … or more! It’s so overwhelming! Thistle and millet and black-oil sunflower and specific kinds for specific birds. Song birds – don’t they all sing? Wintering birds – aren’t they all wintering? Food for wild birds – are these the party birds? Or in another light – aren’t they all wild? It’s not like I’ve got parakeets in my backyard! … I don’t get it. And my birds don’t and won’t either.
I can’t afford the expensive bird foods – so they’ll just have to be content with the odd muffin, crackers, peanuts and whatever I put out for them. I just ask that they be nice and share with my squirrels … and Moby. I guess they are happy with what they are getting … I haven’t had one complaint yet!