One day last week I had just cleaned the kitchen window when I decided to set up my camera to catch some of our visitors. I put the camera on a tripod just inside the window. The only problem with a clean window is that you can see in as easily as you can see out. So every time I stepped up to the camera to get a picture, the visitors hurried away. I ended up putting up a blind of houseplants, a poinsettia, and a dishtowel in order to take my photographs. It might have been easier to dress up like a very large bird...
It also attracts the very large, colorful and extremely shy Stellar's Jays. Who sometimes brave the scary finches and other, similar large predators. Really, you'd think a jay would be obnoxious and pushy. These guys are the most timid ones in our yard. I love their fraggle action with the bobbing feathers on top of their heads and the rich blue of their tails. They are among my favorites. I try to make sure there's plenty of peanuts on the ground for them to snag, away from the bustling crowds.
Oh yes, there are also lots of other birds... Pine Siskin, Pine Grosbeak, Evening Grosbeak, Mountain Chickadee, Nuthatch, Hairy Woodpeckers... everyone loves to come hang out at our house!
And what, you may ask, is that large item in the middle of the feeder. You might ask that if you didn't live in the mountains of Colorado. That, my friends, is a brick to help keep the feeder from blowing away on a daily basis. When I go out to fill the feeders, I make a certain call and I'm quite convinced that the chickadees, at least, know what it means. They land around me and wait for the feeder to fill. Sometimes they are landing on the feeder as I'm still hanging it back up. I like that they trust me.
No comments:
Post a Comment