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!

Macies Monday

macies ~ atrophy, emaciation

Yawn. I have to say, there’s nothing much exciting going on here. The highlight of the week was the quick trip the hubby and I took to Costco on Wednesday. And because things were a little more open than they’ve been, we also hit the Peterborough Mall and Chapters. But even with those additional stops I think that was the quickest shopping trip we’ve ever made (pre-COVID).

There were a lot of people in the mall and Chapters not wearing masks, which really surprised me. Chapters had someone standing at the door making sure we used their hand sanitizer, which annoyed me at first but then I saw the sense of it, seeing as customers would be handling their books. It was almost comforting to get to Costco where if you don’t have a mask they give you one.

I still don’t like wearing masks, but when I am I want to see others wearing them too.

We’ve had a cardinal visiting our back yard from time to time, and a few other interesting birds, so I finally broke down and filled the feeder. And then I spent the day watching the grackles systematically empty it out. *sigh* At least it wasn’t the squirrels this time.

And I learned something interesting about blue jays. I put peanuts out for them on the rail of the deck if it’s not too breezy, and on the patio table if it is. When the grandbaby is over I let her do it because she’ll call out to them, telling them to come get their peanuts, and they do. They’re pretty smart birds because they even figured out where she lives (not too far from us) and followed her home to squawk for peanuts at her house too.

But I digress.

I was in my office and I watched out the window as a blue jay took his sweet time picking out just the right peanut from the patio table, and then hopped over to one of the planters we have surrounding the patio. I thought he was going to use the edge of the planter to break open the peanut but no, he buried his peanut in the planter!

Here I thought the squirrels were responsible for the peanuts we find in various gardens and planters. Looks like they’re not the only ones who like to stash food for a rainy day.

Speaking of rainy days . . . We haven’t had too many of them lately, and we’re under water restrictions now. But the hubby faithfully waters the gardens every other day, which is a good thing because they need all the help they can get. Especially now that we have visitors of the insect kind.

These are Japanese beetles, and you see them here doing what they do best – defoliating plants. I don’t have them as bad as my neighbour does, but it’s still a little annoying to have all your hard work end up in a bug’s stomach. So far it’s just the leaves, not the actual produce they’re attacking. And we’re still getting plenty of peas and beans.

But touch my tomatoes and it’ll mean war!

Malagma Monday

malagma ~ emollient plaster

Is it just me or are the birds super annoyingly loud this year?

The dawn chorus doesn’t start at dawn, it starts about a half hour before dawn and takes place right outside my bedroom window. Right now I’m listening to some bird – I can’t see it but I know what tree it’s hiding in – and it just won’t shut up.

There is a family of crows that seem to have taken a liking to the trees at the back of the yard. Or maybe the people that live on that property have been feeding them – I don’t know. That’s one of the pitfalls of a six foot high privacy fence, it makes it hard to be a nosy neighbour.

And as I was sitting at the dining room table having breakfast one morning (it looks out over our deck) I heard one of the most annoying birds making its noise and I looked out and there it sat on the deck railing. My first thought was, how can such a tiny bird make such a loud noise??

We also seem to have a much larger variety of birds than we used to. We’ve always had the robins, red winged blackbirds, grackles, and blue jays, maybe the odd cardinal, but this year I’ve seen orioles, goldfinches, grosbeaks, flickers, and a couple of wood peckers. Those aren’t the only ones I’ve seen, of course, but those are the only ones I could identify.

Maybe it’s time to put the feeder back up. The squirrel population was just starting to make a comeback after the coyotes moved on to better feeding grounds, but the foxes are back so the squirrels have thinned out again. In fact, I’ve been sitting here looking out the deck doors for the last hour and haven’t seen one squirrel – not even in the big trees behind the fence.

Go foxes go! The squirrels are the reason I took down my feeder in the first place. The little tree rats may seem cute at first, but they get very aggressive after they get used to you. I once posted a picture of the squirrel who kept climbing the screen of the deck door, looking for the peanuts I put out for the jays. I’ll take foxes any day!

Hmm. Come to think of it, I haven’t noticed any chipmunks or birds in the back yard either. Do they know something we don’t?

Molariform Monday

molariform ~ shaped like a molar

Where do I start? *shakes head sadly*

Let's start with the weather, which kind of skipped over spring and went straight to summer. We had a few record-breaking high temperature days towards the end of the week. And with the nicer weather we have the birds returning to serenade us. Like this guy:

This tree is at the very back of our yard. And in this tree is a robin, who apparently has an app on his phone that lets him know when sunrise is, because even on overcast days he starts his damned chirping at sunrise and keeps it up until mid-morning. I swear if I had a sling shot I'd be using him for target practice!

Can't spot him? Let me help:

Chirping should not be allowed in the morning until I've had a coffee!

Last week was pretty unremarkable. Mostly what I did was edit Lucky Dog, which you can read about HERE.

Sunday, of course, was Mother's Day, which was kind of a mixed bag for me. I was all set to have a relaxing morning of painting, only to discover I had everything I needed . . . except the actual paint. So after a family brunch, we stopped at Staples where I picked some up, and for a $5 donation to the Special Olympics, I received a Mother's Day gift bag that had a really nice message pad and a can of cinnamon coated almonds.

My pleasure in the gift lasted until I got home and tried one of the almonds. I think the cinnamon must have been mixed with cement, because I bit into one and broke a tooth to the point where I don't think the dentist will be able to save it. And we were having corn on the cob for supper. *sigh*

Still, it wasn't all bad. I had a visit from my little Ellie-beans and got to read her a story:

And remember my old friend, Blackie the squirrel? He left a Mother's Day present for me in the front garden:

So it looks exactly like the tulips in my next-door-neighbor's garden. It's the thought that counts. Right? ;-)

And I got a bit of a chuckle out of Dante's unique solution to the "Nook War" he and Taz are waging. They both like the book nook and neither are willing to share.

And finally, my orchid has six - count 'em - six blooms open! And there's still more buds on the end of the stalk! So beautiful!

So all in all, I'd say the good out-weighed the bad yesterday. At least that's what I'll keep telling myself until I visit the dentist. ;-)