My feeder was over run in happy zooming birds today. I also cast some seed on the driveway, because otherwise there are bird fights. Bird fights can get very nasty and bloody.
Mostly I have sparrows, finches, chicadees and Juncos visiting currently.
It's cat TV, really. That's why I hung the feeder in the Butterfly bush, 10 feet from the cat yard. The cats sit on upper shelves in the cat yard and watch the birds, by the hour. But they can't go after them.
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| Gracie is an old gal now, but her hair is sure beautiful. This morning she was on the ledge looking out the front window and the heat vent was blowing up from the floor. It was like she was a model, with her hair blowing in the breeze for a photo shoot. |
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| Gracie again, with Panda asleep above her. |
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| You wouldn't think Muffy has a problematic coat. She looks short hair, but the hair is fine and readily mats, so she too needs a lot of grooming. |
My very old loud Shady, deaf now, is still full of character, although she mostly sleeps. She's the one who howls if she thinks there's chicken somewhere she could be eating. She wants it. Loudly.
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| You can still see the faded green Neuterscooter tattoo in her left ear. |
I didn't see any birds today. But I'm sure they will be around soon.
ReplyDeleteCoffee is on and stay safe
It's been so cold here, but the birds seem oblivious to it. Sure a big crowd showed up yesterday.
DeletePecking order isn't an empty phrase is it?
ReplyDeleteLove your cats - and yes, Gracie IS model beautiful. Which she no doubt knows.
No empty phrase, that one. A month or two more and they will really be into the fights, when breeding season hits.
DeleteNice to see the birds feeding...peacefully.
ReplyDeleteI love Gracie's look. You must spend some time grooming her.
Only time I get to groom Gracie is if she's in a net. She's a wild thing.
DeleteYou provide free entertainment for the kitties too! I love all the photos. Gracie sure is a gorgeous kitty. She reminds me a lot of my sweet Missy who I lost two years ago.
ReplyDeleteOh I'm so sorry you lost your friend. I'm still struggling over losing Starry.
DeleteQuite the collection of birds. I'm sure the cats are riveted.
ReplyDeleteYes they are.
DeleteYour house finches are far brighter than ours, yet you live less than fifty miles up the road.
ReplyDeleteWe have a squirrel-proof seed feeder outside our window, plus I built a feeder just for the squirrels (the cats especially like that one). I sometimes see as many as seven Douglas Squirrels around that feeder (only one at a time can fit onto the feeder, but others eat the seeds that drop around it), and while they're grouchy about being squeezed together, that's where the food is, and they rely heavily on it. Along with our seed feeder for the birds, we have a suet feeder (Walmart's eight-packs of suet are inexpensive) for the scrub jays, woodpeckers, and flickers--as well as some of the smaller birds--plus I scatter food on the ground for the crows and collared doves. I don't know why every seed and suet feeder I've ever seen is so small, but it's sad to see large birds struggling to eat from a tiny feeder.
A post or two ago, you mentioned feeding hummingbirds. If wasps should scare your hummers off, and if your feeder has yellow "flowers," I've found that it helps to paint the flowers red because wasps are supposedly attracted to yellow while hummingbirds are not (I enjoy the wasps also, so I keep a bowl of water on the ground for them). Because I found that I got about as many hummers when I didn't dye their water, I stopped dying it. I have no idea if the dye is a problem for them, but I'm happy to do without it. All we ever see at my feeder are Anna's and the occasional Rufous, so I'm wondering if you ever see others. Here's a pretty good site about Oregon hummers: https://birdwatchinghq.com/hummingbirds-in-oregon/
I'll look at that link, Snow. I just assumed they were all Rufous. My feeder is red, no yellow and I never have had trouble with wasps on it. I know now to only mow my grass the first times in late spring on high setting, or I disturb Bumble Bee's nesting in the ground. I let the clover go in my yard. In fact I want my backyard to be all white clover because the bees love it and it doesn't grow to a height that needs mowed. The house finches are brighter here this year than I've ever seen before. I don't know. No squirrels here. At the park, there are Douglas squirrels and California ground squirrels.
DeleteOur cats have always loved our feeders both for the birds and the squirrels that visit them.
ReplyDeleteIt's amazing how they can sit so still, maybe a tail twitching, watching for hours! I learned my patience trapping from cats, to stay stock still, barely breathing, sometimes for great lengths of time. Or until my butt goes numb.
DeleteIt would annoy me to death if trapping with someone else, who would be on their bright phone, blinding me to seeing in the dark then, or moving around, rocking the car, or otherwise making it very difficult to be successful trapping. It's a loner occupation, really.
DeleteYou witness bloody bird fights? Yikes! I wish you and all your beautiful charges the best, my dear.
ReplyDelete"It's amazing how they can sit so still, maybe a tail twitching, watching for hours! I learned my patience trapping from cats"
ReplyDeleteIn my reading about the Navy Seals and other special forces groups, I learned that a big part of their training involves patience and stillness. Like cats, they are stealth hunters, but, unlike cats, it's un-natural for Type A testosterone-laden young men to lie completely still for hours--often in uncomfortable positions--as they do reconnaissance, wait for someone to kill, or seek to avoid capture.
Jody, the last Freethought Today had some articles I think you would enjoy. Would you like me to send it to you?
Hey, how about all this sunny weather? Someone must have slid Oregon out from under us while we slept.
I so enjoy your posts and your other commenters.