When we first moved in to our new house a month ago, F mentioned wanting to have birds in the yard. So I set up a bird bath, certain they’d all flock to it, but only the chickadees came by to use it once in a while. A few weeks later I rummaged through the garage to find the bird feeders my parents left behind. We shoved the feeder pole into the ground one Friday evening, full of doubt, and filled the plastic tray with black nyjer seed that was surely too old to be appetizing.
So I thought.
That very next morning, as I came into the kitchen to begin the day, I heard an unusual amount of bird activity close by.
The feeder?!
YES!
They had found it! And when I rushed to the back window and saw finches tussling over a dining spot, I was overcome with the same deep feeling of thrilling excitement that I remember experiencing as a little girl, walking into the dark living room on Christmas morning and discovering that Santa had come!
The feeder has been so popular. The chickadees are a definite favorite. They’re such cheeky, fearless little things. I can stand within an arm’s length of them! (Click here for pictures of my close-up encounter with one~)
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We love the sense of being much closer to nature than we were in our apartment. Soon after we moved in, I began hearing a bird call I’ve never heard before in this area. The bird species do ebb and flow around here, and the birdsong I woke up to in second grade is not the same medley I awake to now.
But this one was completely new. Finally I caught a glimpse of this skittish and swift little newcomer — beautiful yellow! I’d never before seen this bird, so went inside and pulled out the Birds Golden Nature Guide — a family heirloom of sorts from 1960. Matching a bird to a bird book can take a while; where do you start? But would you even believe, the exact page I turned randomly to, and the first bird illustration I laid eyes on, was my very bird — a Wilson’s Warbler it turns out.
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And isn’t this sweet — journal-style notations written by my Mom in 1989 that I discovered at the back of a birdfeeding book.
I love these little captured moments in time.
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Do you have a bird feeder? Who comes to visit?? Please share, I’d love to know!
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I am in the state of GA, & we have had cardinals year round. They are beautiful & know immediately when the feeder are filled. Today we had nuthatches again, & of course we’ve had humming birds at the feeders all summer. Wonderful sights!! Mary Ann
Hi Mary Ann!
Cardinals!!!!! What a sight. How lucky; we don’t have them here.
Enjoy those sweet birds,
Lindsey