For the birds
Full disclosure. The pandemic is kinda kicking my butt when it comes to every day exploration. Acedia, torpor, and ennui have replaced zest, curiosity, and wonder in my emotional makeup. Getting out to explore feels like a huge amount of effort, made more effortful by the cold and short hours of daylight.
Thank goodness for my bird feeder.
Well, actually bird feeders. Plural. I have three plus a bird food brick or two. And a heated bird bath. Things haven't gotten out of control. Yet. We'll see where things stand when the pandemic abates.
We have a goodly assortment of birds that come visit, the inevitable house sparrows, finches both goldfinch and house finch (and once a purple finch). Juncos. We have woodpeckers of the downy, hairy, red bellied and flicker variety. The red male cardinal and greenish brown female cardinal come visit as do the blue jays. There are fox squirrels, of course, and in the middle of the night the trail cam tells me that skunks, opossum, an occasional rabbit and a cat or two visit the water dish (emptied and cleaned daily). My favorite visitors though are the nuthatches, red and white breasted. Zippy and bold, I've unintentionally gotten close when filling the feeders and did not see them there.
We had snow and cold for about a week at the end of October and that brought in a song sparrow. But I haven't seen one of them since.
Because I am spending so much time watching birds, I have finally joined Project Feederwatch a citizen science project that monitors bird during the winter. If I'm going to sit and stare at birds, I might as well collect data.
If you would like to watch birds at a bird feeder but don't have the space or capacity for your own set up, I suggest bookmarking the Cornell Lab Feeder and watching on YouTube. I passed the site along to my 88 year old mother and she logs in regularly.
