CHICKADEES AND TITMICE AND FINCHES OH MY

We have been very fortunate to have a bird feeder for the last several years.  Where we live now, we have a back garden and a birdfeeder that is squirrel-proof.  That means that one of the many squirrels who live around us, all of whom we call ‘Sid’ because one squirrel looks pretty much like another to our uneducated eyes, anyway, ‘Sid’ cannot get birdseed from the feeder.  It is cleverly designed so that Sid can climb all around it in a very funny (to us) way, but if he tries to perch on the little bar in the front of the feeder, it drops down and the feeder area is closed.  The squirrel will try sometimes to climb up the pole from the ground, but there’s a baffle there.  The best a squirrel can hope for is to glean seed fragments that the birds drop.

So the little chickadees, which look like little bandits, the titmice which are proudly crested, and the finches which are very cheeky little birds, all enjoy their meals , except of course for not wanting to share with each other.  And when the cardinals and jays come along, they reign supreme and the smaller birds simply move to a nearby tree or bush and wait.

What is such a wonderful luxury is, on mild mornings and mild evenings, and even the occasional mild mid-day, to be able to sit and watch the antic behavior of all the birds, including the doves who come to glean what falls from the feeder, and even, yes, the squirrels, who can defy gravity and fly from the crape myrtle tree to the feeder but who cannot find a meal there.  The feeder is for the birds!