Birdwatching

One of the hard things about gardening in this great state is the long dead winter. While snow is beautiful, and the kids sure enjoy it, it's hard to appreciate the winterscape day after day when I'd rather be out planting, weeding, pruning and harvesting. One of the simple luxuries I do enjoy here though is feeding the birds. It makes gazing out the window far less dreary when there's a flurry of activity going on.

I've always liked feeding birds and watching them, since I was little. But I didn't really LOVE it until we moved here. In California, where I grew up, feeding birds is kind of ... blah. I mean the weather is always great and you're not providing anything for them that they couldn't find on their own, 365 days a year. But out here there's snow covering the ground for a solid 6 - 9 months, with few if any seeds or insects to be found, and temps far below zero. Putting out seed, nuts and suet (and warm flowing water) attracts TONS of birds because a food source is a very big deal in winter. I feel almost benevolent, I enjoy watching who comes to partake and the various personalities they all have - it's quite a nice symbiotic relationship. Plus out here the birds are, frankly, just a lot more striking. They have bold colors and unique ways of moving. Out West it seems like the grey sparrows I saw day after day, while adorable, were mostly just interested in not becoming someone else's lunch, and camoflauge was the big thing. Not so out here - a brilliant cardinal against the snow is quite a sight!

I have three feeders. My main one on the SE corner of the deck is filled with a mixture of safflower and black sunflower seeds (hence the sunflowers I get growing of their own accord below it every summer!) We often get jays or other messy birds who spill prolifically, so underneath that corner of the deck, where there is a mixture of shrubby weeds, lawn grass, and stone pathway, is a secondary feeding site from those seeds. The birds eat about 2 cups of seed a day! Also hanging off the deck, just below and to the side of the seed feeder (where I can sit comfortably on the couch with a mug of tea and watch it through the bay window) is a suet basket. It gets filled with different suet cakes - right now it's suet with millet and cracked corn, but sometimes I get cakes with berries or ground mealworms and crickets. Out in the back, by the birches, is a hanging woodpecker feeder. It's filled with peanuts, sunflower, corn, and other goodies in a hard glycerin based binder and also in a cage.

I'm having fun noting with Amy which birds we've seen. I didn't recognize a lot of them when we moved here. So far our list has:

Blue Jay
Mourning Dove
American Goldfinch
Dark-Eyed Junco
Black-Capped Chickadee
Downy Woodpecker
House Finch
Northern Cardinal (male and female, lots!)
Purple Finch
Tufted Titmouse
House Sparrow
White-Breasted Nuthatch
Common Grackle

And not exactly at the feeders, but seen in the yard or in the neighborhood:

American Robin
American Crow
Wild Turkey
Ruffed Grouse
Common Pheasant
Canadian Goose
Snow Goose

We found a fantastic site, Here, that not only helps us identify birds but has little wv files attached with their calls. So it's become this really fun science project around the house - we watch and see who comes to our feeders, make note of when they come and what they eat, and try to identify them. We listen to their sounds and read other facts about them. It's interesting, and hopefully it's something that will stick with Amy for a long time.