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Thursday, January 07, 2010

Jingle

Just came in from taking Nick out for his morning constitutional. I feed the birds just outside the kitchen window, a practice which this year has been exceptionally rewarding. It is unusually cold, the ground is frozen very hard and the sparrow-folk are hungry. They come in droves....if you fill it they will come....We have a lot of juncos, an entire flock of white-throated sparrows, a whole batch of puzzling LBB's (little brown birds...I think they may be tree sparrows, which are a constant around here, but no central breast spot is visible,) plus a song sparrow or two and all the other common feeder visitors. Guzzling gold finches, hungry house finches, chattering chickadees, nuthatches, woodpeckers, dozens of mourning doves and over on the other side of the house, the dearly beloved mockingbird clan.

Anyhow as I stood on the edge of the porch (barefoot, the more fool me) I could just barely make out an entire ground covering of small black blobs, standing in ranks around the porch, the honey locust tree and the garden pond. There were dozens and dozens of birds dotting every foot of ground, neatly spaced as if someone had laid out a grid pattern for them..
They were waiting for me.
(and my trusty can of sunflower seeds.)
I could tell by the jingle.

14 comments:

lisa said...

I am watching the lovely finches, and the cat trying to go through the window to get to them. :)

Deb said...

I'm envious :) We have far fewer birds this winter. Not sure why. I used to have several varieties. Maybe it's just too darn cold.
I did see a very big woodpecker flyover this morning while out doing chores...hopefully he will stick around.

R.Powers said...

barefoot?

Mrs. Mecomber said...

I go barefoot outside sometimes, snow or no. Usually it's to break up *another* cat fight instigated by the neighborhood nasty feline.

Birds in winter seem to take some of the sting out of the dreary winter skies.... but wow, you've got to be the most popular person in bird circles, in the entire state! Before long, even my cardinals and crows will be trekking out to get your seeds...

~ Sara ~ said...

You train well I must say. :) We do our best by the birds here... cardinals, sparrows, blue jays. Haven't seen any finches in ages though.

PS. BAREFOOT?! That just makes me shiver!

Freste said...

Barefoot? I'm with FC and Sara on this one. I don't even go barefoot in the shower. Geeze.
The birds must have been quite a sight though!!!

joated said...

LOL Just don't forget the seeds or we'll have to start calling you Tippi Hedren!

Anonymous said...

I worked in school food service for 23 years and think some kids would not drink milk if it were not for chocolate. usually chocolate milk is 1/2 percent so it is very low in fat.

Anonymous said...

Marianne we have arrive safely at the super 8 in Stanford Ct.
Had a good trip. Dad didn't scare me at all. We followed tom tom's directions and it was just 200 miles. I wanted to e-mail but I forgot my login to frontier. Tell your brothers we are here ok
mom

June said...

The ground net of birds must have been something to see!

And yes, I understand the "barefoot" thing. Since we're never really warm, what's the momentary slicing cold on the bottoms of feet? It get so old having to put on things just to do some little outdoor chore!

threecollie said...

LIsa, I love your right next to the window feeder!

Deb, we are lucky to have brushy fields and hedgerows right down near the house, so we get a lot of birds that would hesitate to cross much open space

FC, fraid so...if you see June's comment below, it is so much the truth for us fools from the north.

Mrs. M, I do it all the time if it is above twenty degrees or so. I have tough feet and if I just walk quickly.....I couldn't believe how many birds there were out there in the half dark this morning. They were all over the ground and in the trees too. It was so cool!

Sara, my feet did get just a tad chilly. lol

Steve...see June's comment on the bare feet. As for the birds, they were amazing. You never see that many at one time in daylight. I wonder if they sleep in the trees and bushes in the yard and were just then getting up

Joated, lol, I had to look er up even though that movie terrified me when I was a kid.

anon, I think the obesity epidemic/global warming/ animal rights folks are all the same people with all the same goals-get rid of agriculture and everybody who works at it.

Mom, so glad you made it all right! I was thinking of you all day. You guys are so brave to venture away like that and I am much impressed. Thanks for letting me know...got your email too. Love you much!

June, you got it exactly! The dog was in a HURRY to get out, and I must watch him to make sure he does what he was out there to do. I didn't have time to put my sneakers on...and then once out on the porch it was only a few more steps to fill the feeder up. lol

DayPhoto said...

We also are experiencing far fewer winter birds. We also had a nasty bad situation with two Mourning Doves which refused to leave. (I don't feed the birds for that reason). They have both perished. If I could have brought them into the house I would have.

I am also having lots of sparrows trying to winter in the chicken house. This alarms me a bit because of disease.

Linda
http://coloradofarmlife.wordpress.com

Ericka said...

bc (before cat), my parents had a window ledge feeder and if dad was late in feeding them, the birds would line up and stare in the windows. it used to freak me out a bit.

now, of course, that large tray feeder is a cat perch.

threecollie said...

Linda, wow!!!! it must be really, really cold there! Our doves winter over fine, although for the first time in my life I have seen them going inside buildings. Stay warm!

Ericka, I once had a feeder like that. I loved getting so close to the birds. We have cats here, but I have squash and they know it