July 21, 2008
Backyard visitors
Click image for larger version.
When I lived in the wilds of New Jersey (don't laugh -- it is The Garden State, after all) a tubular bird feeder was prominently placed outside my house, overlooking Lake Mohawk. The winter months were the best, the scarlet plumage of the cardinals standing out in stark relief against the crisp white of the snow.
A couple months back I finally put a feeder up in our backyard, hanging from the Golden Raintree tucked in the corner, filled to the brim with about eight pounds of striped black sunflower seeds.
Nobody came to feast on the bounty I had provided for days. A week passed, and I began to doubt that there was any interest in the free meal. Then, after almost two weeks, a sighting:
Houston, we have birdage!
Over the course of the next few months, the number of visitors waxed and waned, depending on the type of seed I put out, as well as other factors beyond the ken of humans.
After the last batch of sunflowers seeds disappeared down the gullets of my avian visitors, I switched to a different blend, curious what kinds of birds it would attract, whether it would be more or less popular than the previous mix.
Well.
The new batch was a HUGE success, drawing an overflow crowd to the 12-station feeder, birds swooping in to push aside their slow-poke competitors, tail-fluttering, wing-shaking birdfights seemingly taking place without pause.
These greedy buggers blew though eight pounds of bird food in 24 hours, sometimes looking nearly insensate, pausing to look around with seeds stuck to the outside of their beaks, spilling out of the corners, caught on the tip.
These birds were pigs.
I was standing in the kitchen this weekend when something on the feeder caught my eye. I picked up the binoculars to take a closer look.
Can you spot the bird that caught my eye? Click image for larger version.
"What the heck is that?" I asked the wife. "Doesn't look like anything native to Southern California."
I stepped outside to get a better view and the jittery sparrows took flight to safer environs, watching me from neighboring rooftops. But the fellow who'd caught my eye stayed put, not as easily intimidated as his less colorful peers.
Should I be looking for a very small pirate, too? Arrrgggh! And what's up with that Alfalfa-looking cowlick sticking up on the top of this guy's head? Hey, can a bird have a cowlick?
So, that's where pets go when they flee the coop: Mike's place.
I was able to get to within about 10 feet before the parakeet decided I was inside his comfort zone and took off, but he's been back several times since, hanging out with the other birds, scavenging their leftovers from the base of the feeder; it seems that his beak is the wrong shape to reach through the opening to get seeds, but there's plenty to keep him busy.
I'd like to see if I can get him to come to me for some food more to his liking. Time will tell.
Posted by Mike Lief at July 21, 2008 09:46 PM
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