My best friend says, "I want to get a bird feeder."
I help her find one and she puts it up on her back porch. Chickadees, finches, cardinals, rose-breasted grosbeaks, Northern flickers, bluejays, American tree sparrows. Happy birds.
My mom says, "I want to get a bird feeder."
I help her find one that can do thistle seed on one side and safflower on the other--we have a huge squirrel problem in South City and this helps deter them.
Immediately, purple finches, house finches, goldfinches, a cardinal pair, juncos, a damned bluejay, come and thrive. They get a bird bath. They study, and purchase, capsaicin to keep the squirrels further at bay. They have a beautiful bird yard.
I move just a few blocks from a beautiful city park that I know is full of birds. Across the road from an old cemetery also friendly to birds. I put up my feeder.
I get starlings and house sparrows. You know, the invasive species pair.
One female cardinal. And so many stupid stupid mourning doves.
And that's it.
I let the feeder go empty except the thistle seed, since none of them were eating that. And last week I got a solitary house finch.
I'll keep trying.
I guess the mourning doves just pop across the road from the cemetery.
ReplyDeleteIt really isn't fair, is it? Dona will be able to relate.
Oh that's funny, mourning doves!!
DeleteKeep it up! Other birds may find it! I get great birds, but also lots of those invasive species. And squirrels. But I try not to be too speciesist.
ReplyDeleteMy husband despises mourning doves. I don't get it. I love them.
ReplyDeleteThey aren't bad birds. When I look out the window and see them sitting on the ground I always narrate their thoughts, like "derp, here we are, derp, sitting on the ground". I think they probably have pretty tiny brains after all.
DeleteThey build the most ridiculous nests. Its a wonder they are not extinct.
DeleteYeah, I get mostly boring birds and rarely anything "good" but I just like birds.
ReplyDeleteI sympathize. We only get squirrels and chipmunks, who empty all the feeders in a flash. A solitary chickadee might make it through their greedy paws. Rodent-proof feeders are destroyed by teeth, or just perched on while they stare at the house. And if, by chance, I buy the right feeder and the birds start coming, the bear drops by.
ReplyDeleteOh. The bear.
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