Saturday, January 02, 2010

I'm noticing birds, these days

Until we moved back here in the pasture, I wasn't much of one to notice birds, unless they were brightly-colored. Seeing gray birds at a distance, I always assumed they were sparrows; I didn't really care what they were.
After I put a feeder out, and then a birdbath, I began trying to figure out what kinds of birds were visiting me.
The bird that most commonly shows up at my feeder is the house finch. I thoroughly enjoy them. In summer they coexist with their cousins, the goldfinches. The bird seed I buy is mostly finch-friendly, so that probably has much to do with what varieties of birds I see.
This winter I still have my house finches, and I think I may have seen one or two dull-colored goldfinches.



But these are far outnumbered by a bird I had never noticed before in my life, the Junco. (Pardon the poor quality of the little video.) Often I see eight or ten of them on the ground when I look out the window. Thanks to Google, I learned that this is "south" to them, and in spring they'll travel north to Canada. In my reading about them, I saw it mentioned that a brush pile might make them feel safer, so I dragged my poor old dry Christmas tree out to the bottom of the feeder pole. Indeed, they do seem to enjoy hopping under it and perching on it.

This is the strangest thing: I was just getting ready to tell my readers that I don't see cardinals back here, since they like lots of trees and our trees are only young, small ones. Before I could get two words typed, a female cardinal showed up and made my day. She spent at least a half-hour here. It would be nice if she'd bring one of her bright-colored boy friends along.
This just goes to show that you can still find new things to enjoy when you're past sixty: At my age, it's nice to once again find something that amazes me. Thank God for the birds.

6 comments:

  1. We were just saying how we'd not seen any snow birds yet this year. Usually we do. I guess they figured it'd be too cold and went further south. Although it sounds like you are colder than we are right now. Your accuweather says 10 at the moment and mine says 15.

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  2. I usually only get sparrows and crows....haven't even seen anything besides those two. I wonder if I put out specific kinds of seeds, maybe others will show up?

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  3. We don't have any pretty birds here but I still love to feed them and do all year. We do see lots of cardinals at the ranch.

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  4. We only see the Juncos in the winter here but so far they not been here this winter. The Goldfinches are a really dull color in the winter. We get most of those in the very early spring. Cardinals stay here the year round. I saw a poor Robin try to find some food on the frozen ground yesterday. No food for it around. If I throw out bread crumbs Daisy finds them pretty soon and she is getting so fat she doesn't need them. Helen

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  5. it always amazed me that such tiny birds could survive harsh winters over and over again.. great pics Donna!

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  6. Loved the video. I love watching the birds, too, and lately we've had a couple of woodpeckers that keep me entertained. When there is one out there that is unfamiliar to me, Eler Beth usually can tell me what it is.

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