Birdwatching

More like bird feeding, actually, but still.

One of the first things we did here at the house was to hang up a couple of bird feeders. We started off with the suet feeder, the peanut-butter-pine-cone from pre-school, and a tube feeder I'd had for a few months. I got 20 pounds of mixed seed for my birthday, and was crazy enough to put bird feed on my Christmas list, so now I've got either 40 or 60 pounds of mixed seed (mostly millet, which isn't popular) in the garage. Plus 30 pounds of black-oil sunflower seed in the kitchen, courtesy of a Westlake's sale.

I bought a thistle feeder just before Christmas, but didn't put it out until we saw a pair of house finches over the weekend, and a goldfinch last week, which led to buying 8 pounds of nyger seed. And in the meantime, noticing that the hanging feeder is pretty ignored, while the seed scattered on the deck was popular, I got a plant saucer, put some drainage holes in the bottom, and filled it with seed.

The current score: 4 hanging feeders and one saucer, plus a few piles in the snow here and there.

We had at least 12 different kinds of birds on Saturday, maybe more since my sparrow identification skills are lousy. Unfortunately, we've also got at least three squirrels, and they're bold. They've been pretty hard on the pine-cone feeder, the little rodents. I shoo them away when I can, but it's a losing battle. I did startle one enough yesterday that he didn't let go of the pine cone before he leapt off the tree. He did a little backflip when he hit the end of the yarn. I'll admit, I giggled, and I'm not sorry I ran him/her off.