New Feeders

It's been such a long time since my last post. I even had trouble finding my blog! After a few moments of panic, it turned out I had signed in with a different account. PHEW! I have quite enjoyed reading back through all my bird discoveries, and now I have new ones to share, in my own front yard. More on that in a moment.

It's a cold, blustery, snowy day out there today. And it's not even Thanksgiving yet! We've gotten about a foot of lake effect snow these last three or four days. I LOVE it. (As long as I have a nice warm house from which to observe it, and nice warm clothes to put on to go out into it, and great back-country skis with which to explore it...   I do count my blessings in times like these.)

Anyway, in this blustery weather, the birds have discovered a new bird-feeding paradise at our house...our feeder of the last few years on the blustery bay side is all but abandoned...because (drum roll, please) we have THREE NEW FEEDERS ON THE FRONT SIDE OF THE HOUSE!!

And it's all because of the cat! More on that in a moment, too.

I don't know why I never thought of this before. Here we have this one feeder, faithfully filling it with food all winter for the birds, but what a bad location! The wind howls in from the bay, the feeder sways wildly, the bone-chilling gales attack unimpeded, the poor birds--sure, they have food available--but what they have to go through to get it!

Picture now the other side of the house. Yes, the house, an enormous wind-block. An empty space with a few small trees, then a bank of evergreens blocking the view of the road. Into this empty space my friend Nan and I installed two bird-feeding stands, one of which has two hooks and one of which has the cutest little house. On one of the hooks is a double suet feeder, and on the other a squirrel-proof feeder...ingenious, really, as any creature too heavy (that's you, squirrel) causes the bottom platform to lower, blocking access to the food.

So where does the cat come in? Well, first of all, our family has expanded to include one lovely little calico cat, Belle. She came from Cherryland Humane Society (another story...I was helping my friend Kimberli take photos of all the new animals, and there she was, this VERY nice little cat, quite exceptionally nice, and knowing Mark is a cat person, and with the amazing fact that I have somehow lost my allergies to cats, and with over 40 cats at the Humane Society needing homes, and with Belle still there when I went to walk dogs two weeks later...what the heck? Okay, cat, you're busting out of here with me!).

So I took Belle to the vet a few days later, and what do they have at the vet's but a window with a bird feeder RIGHT OUTSIDE. And it was FILLED with birds! Yes, Dr. Harrison said, that's why this is the CAT ROOM (entertainment for cats!) and the other side (windowless) is the DOG room. Well, I had never been to the cat room, having only had dogs this whole time. V-e-e-e-r--r-r-y interesting!

So I got Belle all set up in her room upstairs (another story...it turns out Zoey, our little terriorist, has quite a strong prey drive, and we are taking it slow with the dog/cat interactions) and I'm looking out the window and thinking Hmm. Belle needs some entertainment up here! Because she is going to be an inside cat (with claws, but an inside cat).

Off I went to Wild Birds Unlimited, where they were having a 27% off sale on all bird feeders due to their 27th anniversary in business...and presto, we have bird-feeding paradise right in front of our house! And, incidentally, in front of the kitchen window, too, which is SO NICE!

But now I'm so distracted by all the new birds that I can't walk by the kitchen without stopping and gaping.

It took them about a day and a half to find it, but boy are they there now! And new ones! So here are the sightings this morning:

red-breasted nuthatch!
dark-eyed junco!
white-throated sparrow!

These are all new ones for me.

We also have our usual cast of characters, looking so beautiful in the falling snow: Mr. and Mrs. Cardinal, some blue jays, a lot of titmice, chickadees, mourning dove, even a crow balanced precariously on top of the house. I can see I'm going to have to fill that little house frequently. It's the most popular bird restaurant. So far no squirrels, though I don't really mind if they do get into it. Heck, they have to eat, too.

So where are the pictures??? Well, that brings me to my other news: we have an exchange student from Thailand staying with us this school year. And she took photography at TC Central High School this term, and she needed a camera. So my camera has been with her. The trimester just ended, though, and I got the camera back, but after snapping just a few pictures this morning, the battery went dead, so it is now recharging and we will be back in bird-photographing action shortly. Stay tuned!