bird brains

I'm sitting here in my living room with a bird's eye view out to the deck where my bird feeder is. Greg has lovingly filled it for me and placed it out there for all the winter birds. I haven't always been a bird watcher/feeder, until last winter. I guess I never really paid attention to the little feathered creatures that hung around all winter. But last winter I became fascinated with them. How can these little birds survive such a harsh cold winter? I decided I wanted to learn more about them.

I bought a feeder and some seed and asked Greg if he would hang it in the tree. But Greg thought perhaps the feeder would be easier to observe if it was hanging on the pole outside our kitchen window. I left it there for weeks, waiting for the little bird brains to discover it. They never did. So, I hatched a plan. I would set the feeder on the ground for a week or so, and when they had gotten used to it, I'd slowly secure it further up the pole until it was in the desired spot. It only took a few days for the birds to find it on the ground. But as soon as I began the slow ascent up the pole, they couldn't figure out where to eat.

So, I asked Greg if he could please put it in the tree, which he did. And what do you know? Within a couple days, my feeder was a busy eating place. The birds were soon fighting over who got to sit on the ledge and who had to wait. We had bright yellow birds, tiny blue birds, juncos, and the doves sat on the ground eating all that was dropped. I'm sure there were more than I could actually know, and I was buying seed left and right.

The kids were always so thrilled when they'd see birds eating from the feeder. "Mommy, there's a bird on your feeder!" they'd shout. It was pretty cute to see them get so excited about it. After awhile, the birds got used to us being outside and would let us get quite close before flying away. Haha, one day I was working in the garden and I looked up just in time to see my bird feeder spinning around and around, seed flying out from every which way. Isaac had wound it up, for whatever reason, and by the time I got there, the seed was gone. It was pretty funny to see his face, he honestly didn't expect the results he got from twisting it all up. I told him not to do that again and I re-filled it.

When we moved to Iowa, I was distraught. Where would all my birds, including humming birds, find food? I had spoiled them by providing such a steady stream of feed. I was thankful it was summer time and they'd have plenty of nice days to find food before winter set in. I'm sure the little critters have found another food source.

As for me right now, here I sit waiting for the first birds to discover the feeder. We've seen birds on the deck before, but so far no one has touched the seed. It's only a matter of time.....