Category: Urban Nature + Foraging (Page 4 of 13)

Remember how I was telling you about our backyard birds? (Clickie!) Well, a very special Chickadee Encounter has transpired that I have to share with you. I was lounging on the back porch, resting, and my eyes drifted to a particular branch on our apple tree upon which sat a sleeping chickadee! It must have been there longer than I had, since I hadn’t seen it arrive. I watched it sleep, and then tiptoed into the house to get my camera — although I figured this would be futile since it would likely just fly away. But it was still there, unmoved, when I returned, and so as surreptitiously as I could I approached the apple tree. Animals are highly alert so I’m sure it sensed me, especially when a leaf crunched underfoot, but it remained unaffected even as I inched my camera ever nearer to its branch. I couldn’t believe how close this dear little bird allowed me to get; perhaps within twelve inches of it. It opened its eyes a few times to assess, but closed them again and continued resting. I got my pictures and went back to my own business of resting, in awe of what had just taken place.

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It opened its eyes in this one…

A while later, the chickadee was gone from its branch, but a small hawk landed in one of our trees, and a group of chickadees in the lilac bushes near the bird feeder began their chick-a-dee-dee-dee alarm call. I spooked the hawk so it would leave, and went to the bushes to see about the little chickadees. They really are such cheeky little things, and not nearly as flighty as other birds. Again I grabbed my camera and one, perhaps the same one, allowed me to approach quite closely and capture its beauty on camera so that I might share it with you all. What an experience, to be so close to these endearing creatures.

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I love this one especially…

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Do you have a special bird story? Please share!

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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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