Birds!

I am in love with watching birds and I wanted to share this hobby with my kids.  For Christmas I gave them a large, squirrel-proof bird feeder into which you put seed cakes.  I was more excited about it than the kids.

I hung it under our tent that stood by the bus and sprinkled seeds around the ground to broadcast to the birds, "This way for food!"  

When I had set the feeder up, snow had not yet fallen and stuck around for the kids to play in.  I wondered if the cold and snow would deter the birds.  Fresh tracks told me that birds have an appetite equivalently ravenous as mine!

We've seen Juncos and Cardinals but they are too heavy or too afraid to try the feeder and just stick to the bird we spread on the ground.  Titmice come around a lot and they are polite to one another to take turns.  I had read horrible reviews that described how house finches will kill other birds that dare to go to the feeder.  Greedy bastards can't even share!  Luckily, there aren't any house finches near here and we haven't had to witness something so horrible.  There used to be Carolina Wrens that visited, but I haven't seen them around.  I hope it's not the titmouse birds scaring them away.

I saw Field Sparrows first poking at the ground, but then they started flying up to the feeder.  They're cute and all, but I've seen them in horribly large numbers at the Commissary and I hope their numbers don't increase so much here that the titmice go away.  I just love the latter's crown!

A Mourning Dove once tried to do the feeder, but it's neck was too huge to go through the openings.  It was brave, though, in that it hung on tightly to the cage while it swayed.  Other medium-size birds such as the Grackle and a Red-Capped Woodpecker have tried to latch on the the cage, but the swaying startles them and they fly away.

After 2 months, the suet cakes are almost gone!