Wordless Wednesday
Tag Archives: birds
Meanwhile, back at the feeders…
The European Starlings descended on our feeders one afternoon this week.
I only see these birds in the winter, though I read they are year round residents.
All I know for sure is that they are pigs and will empty a feeder and eat a whole block of suet in a day. Many people don’t like them because they are invasive.
But, when the sun shines on them just right they are beautiful.
On this day the skies were dull and there was little light. But I’ve seen them in sunlight on other winter days and been mesmerized.
This week I first noticed them fighting each other over the suet feeder. But soon enough they were on the peanut feeder too, a favorite with our Red Bellied woodpeckers.
The woodpecker stood his ground, telling the starlings off and eventually winning the right to eat in peace.
In fact, after that little run-in all the starlings moved to the ground in the backyard and then on to greener pastures.
But they’ll be back.
Guaranteed.
The continuing saga of my hungry birds
It’s winter here, with storm fronts headed our way.
Birds know when it’s going to get rough and they stock up just like humans do.
All the birds have been hungry, emptying feeders daily.
We even put out suet to help them fuel up.
In return they’ve allowed me to grab a few images from my warm living room.
I love my birds. They’re not aware of the one shot one treat rule.
So far anyway.
Showing his red belly
We have a squirrel problem at our house, made worse by the number of birdfeeders the fuzzy marauders have to choose from.
So we have a caged feeder that little birds flit in and out of regularly. The littles were never nervous about it, right from the start.
But the bigger birds don’t fit inside the cage. They have to do with the nearby flat feeder, or whatever seed has fallen to the ground.
Sometimes they get jealous and try to figure out how to get to the seeds in the caged feeder.
And if they have a really long tongue and are especially tenacious…
…they can be successful!
Wordless Wednesday
Poof!
While out at my favorite park trying to get shots of birds I learned a lesson.
You have to be quick. Otherwise you get a lot of this.
Not that I mind too much. This was cool too.
Crane watching
While I was walking the boardwalk searching for the Queen I noticed these cranes through the bushes and across the road.
What were they watching, I wondered?
Oh. You wouldn’t think there’d be so much traffic on a cold mid-week afternoon.
Don’t worry, no cranes (or runners) were injured in the capturing of these images.
But I wonder if these guys don’t think it’s about time to head south?
Queen of the Boardwalk
I was out there to meet the Queen. I’d been trying to get an audience with her for several weeks. But she’s a Royal and follows her own rules. I’m used to that.
You see, almost every day I’d see, on Facebook, a photographer who calls herself the “Hand of Snacks” feeding a female cardinal along the boardwalk at my favorite park.
Lots of birds come down to any number of hands filled with snacks at this park, but cardinals are famously shy. Quite stand-offish. So to see this female sitting in a hand regularly intrigued me. And I drove the 30+ minutes every week or so, hoping to get to meet her Majesty for myself. Oh, I’d see her – sitting in the scrub along the boardwalk. I’d offer a treat. She’d watch me. But she never showed any interest in getting to know me better. Week after week I’d leave disappointed.
This Wednesday, there she was, sitting among the twigs of a dogwood bush with her partner, the bright red Mr. Cardinal. And that morning she seemed interested in me. She moved out to the end of the branch and eyed me up and down. I stood still, gifts offered. She flew to the railing, quite a far bit away from me and eyed me some more.
Clearly I was not her Hand of Snacks. I was an imposter. But she was hungry. But I was an imposter. Could she trust me? Would she trust me? She hopped along the railing to get a closer look. She looked up at me and then down at the snacks in my hand. I stood still, barely breathing.
And then she reached out, her feet still firmly planted on the railing, she wasn’t going to actually stand on my hand, and grabbed an oiler seed, moving rapidly away from me to eat it. I stood still.
She hopped over again and helped herself to another treat, not moving so far away this time…and then she grabbed a peanut and with a slight nod to me, she flew back into the bushes to share it with her partner.
And the politely waiting chickadee hopped up onto my hand to see what she had left behind.
Now I can say I’ve met the Queen. And it was everything I knew it would be.
Finishing up 2022
I’m sitting here watching my birds at our feeders. We have a lot of feeders, starting out with one we thought they could all share…then realizing that some birds aren’t sharers at heart.
Now I fill 4 feeders every morning, and hope I can go the rest of the day without heading out to fill them again. But with the weather this week, all the wind and cold and snow, the birds were ravenous and I ended up out there more than once on each cold, nasty day.
Anyway, the year is winding down and I feel like I should be reflecting on 2022. But, in our family, it was a difficult year and one that might best be let go without any formality.
Best, maybe, to anticipate next year. I am very hopeful about 2023.
I’m hoping there are camping adventures waiting in the woods, perhaps even near a dark sky park.
I am hopeful for clear warm summer nights when the moon is new, and wild stormy cloud filled skies during afternoon barn searches.
I’m hopeful for lush gardens of vibrant flowers filled with fat buzzing bees and the whisper of hummingbird wings.
I’m hopeful for red ripe tomatoes warmed by the afternoon sun, and bluebirds nesting in their boxes way out in the yard.
I’m hopeful for a long bike ride or two, and more than a couple kayak trips down a river or across a lake.
I’m hopeful I’ll see Alabama again after too long away, that I’ll get to float again in the warm southern waters talking with neighbors and family until the sun slides down in a glorious sunset.
And I’m hopeful I’ll get to see my Lake Michigan in all it’s moods a few times too, maybe even Lake Superior if I’m extra lucky.
I hope I’ll be able to roam further from home too, perhaps even to dark skies in other states. I’ve heard Michigan does not hold a monopoly on the stars.
And I’m hoping I’ll get to share it all with you. And maybe, just maybe if we’re exceptionally lucky, I’ll be able to share it with a new puppy.
But that’s a story that has to wait to be told.
Meanwhile I’ll sit in my chair near the window and watch my birds as they devour their lunch and dream about another, happier, year.
May you all have dreams for 2023, and may the best of those come true.
