Going to the Birds

Give food to the birds, you will then be surrounded by the wings of love, you will be encompassed by the joys of little silent hearts!
— Mehmet Murat Ildan

Birds are a miracle because they prove to us there is a finer, simpler state of being which we may strive to attain.
— Douglas Coupland

Everyone likes birds. What wild creature is more accessible to our eyes and ears, as close to us and everyone in the world, as universal as a bird?
— David Attenborough

Do you put out seed for the birds?

We have a variety of birds around here, and I just started appreciating it this summer. So I got a bird feeder and hung it from a shepherd’s crook, and sporadically filled it with seed.

I know some people don’t put out seed during the summer, but I did once in awhile so the birds would get used to checking it out and the plan is that when winter comes I’d fill it on a regular basis.

Right off the bat I noticed how greedy the grackles were. They could empty a feeder in under an hour, so I began varying the days and times of day I put out seed and at least the other birds had a chance once in a while.

Then the grackles disappeared. I have no idea where they went, I was just happy they were no longer holding my feeder hostage. So I began putting the seed out a little more regularly. And then I noticed that it seemed to be disappearing a little faster than it should be, given the frequency of the birds that visited my feeder.

Then one day I happened to notice a chipmunk scurrying across the deck. Normally I think chipmunks are kind of cute, but this one headed for the shepherd’s crook, climbed the pole, and then crossed over to the feeder where he proceeded to stuff his little cheeks with my bird seed!

Eventually I determined that there were two of them (I think they live under our deck) and between them they could empty my feeder almost as quickly as the grackles. They didn’t seem particularly worried when I’d go out to yell at them, so I tried talking to them instead, patiently explaining that the seed was for everyone, not just them, and if they didn’t start sharing I was going to stop putting it out.

They must have seen I was serious because they actually did ease up a bit. Instead of emptying the feed in a couple of hours, they’d take a couple of days. Or maybe they were just getting tired of the same old seed every day.

I also put out peanuts for the blue jays and just recently started putting out black sunflower seeds, which seem to attract some kind of small bird – sparrows maybe? – as well. And squirrels. Lots and lots of squirrels.

In the past when I put out a feeder, squirrels were the reason I’d give up filling it. One was a finch feeder, which lasted about two days before the squirrels destroyed it. The next one was a really nice wooden one I’d been given as a hostess gift, and it took a couple of months before they (with some help from the grackles) gnawed through the top of it.

I’d hung both of those two in the birch tree beside our deck, and I guess it was a little too easy to access. The feeder on the shepherd’s crook has nothing within jumping distance, so it’s lasted a little better than the others. However, the squirrels are still somewhat of a problem.

Yes, that’s a squirrel inside the feeder. When I first saw him he was upside down and I thought he was stuck, but he managed to get out okay. What I’d really like to know is how he got in there in the first place.

It’s too bad the green spaces are all disappearing from our area. I really wish the coyotes would come back to keep the squirrel population down!