Apr
16
2013
One of my critters got it. My wife heard a rattling of a plate. I was absented minded: I laid down a slice of cheesecake in the living room and quickly went out to refill my birdseed and promptly forgot about the cheesecake. We still don’t know who gobbled it down. It was one of my critters. One of my dogs. I would not put it past anyone of them. It became a tasty morsel for one of them.
May
17
2012
One chipmunk discovered the birdseed strewn on the ground and was helping himself to it. I don’t know exactly why but I love watching them. Later on he climbed up the tree and was ten feet up. Usually you only see them on the ground. Let us see if he comes back now. He does not have to work too hard to feed himself. I sprinkle bird seed on the ground every day or two.
Mar
7
2011
When I woke up and looked outside our large living room window everything was blanketed by white. The trees, ground were all covered by white. In fact, it was a wet snow. It was just cold enough to snow last night. The branches of our large white pine in front of our window were bowed down by the weight of the snow. There were some broken branches lying on the ground.
This was a rough year for that pine tree. It lost several large branches during at least three storms. I immediately put out more birdseed when I got up. This may be the last snowstorm of the year so I took a long look at all the trees and ground. I may not see such a scene until next year. It was March 7, so it is possible we may get another such storm but the days were getting warmer and warmer. This storm had taken us by surprise.
Jan
26
2011
Everytime I see a bright red cardinal in my backyard I am awed by its beauty. I could not believe it when I was in the car and my passengers could not identify one that flew across our car.
My visitors were from NYC and maybe never saw one in the heart of the City. It is such a common songbird yet such a beautiful one and the sighting of the male never fails to take my breath away.
The female is quite drab yet if you see her usually her mate is not too far away for they mate for life. They love to feed on the sunflower seed I put out in the yard although they are more wary than some others birds that come to the birdseed I put out.
It is always a treat to see the brightly red colored male. And I don’t take them for granted. My heart always skips a beat when I spot a male.
Jan
8
2010
Sometimes I do not see the birds. I wonder where they went, whether I am just missing them. A steady stream of titmouse, downy woodpecker and flocks of slate covered junco come to my feed I put out for them.
Presently there is not one bird out there. The dogs were out and just charged in. Now I am waiting for my visitors. I do not remember exactly where I read it in the Bible but it says if God can feed the sparrow how can we possibly doubt God won’t take care of us.
I think it uses the word lowly to describe the sparrow. I put out birdseed on the ground and keep three feeders full. The birds do not, I am sure, spend one second worrying where their next meal comes from. Even in winter.
If God takes can take care of the lowly sparrow how can we possibly doubt He will not take care of us? Of (???) ye humans of bad faith!
Mar
18
2009
I make sure my two large bird house totems face outward, one on each side of my front door. I want the birds in my neighborhood to feel welcome. There are a multitude of birds that come to our five feeders, which I keep well supplied with anything from sunflower seed to thistle to suet and when the warm weather arrives I put out nectar I make especially for the hummingbirds. That does not even include the birdseed I scatter on the ground for the birds who prefer to feed there.
Last year there were three birds nesting in our vicinity. An eastern phoebe built a nest above the right front door light although there might have been too much traffic there for her to be successful in raising her young. A nest was built there two years in a row.
A scarlet tanager raised a family in a bird box stationed at a large white pine a foot higher feet than my head less than an hundred feet away from our entrance although I never spotted the brightly colored male. I had never seen one before.
A catbird made a nest in the thicket of one gigantic bush in the corner of our yard. One of our cats found the nest and flushed the young catbird out of the bush and we shooed the cat away immediately. The frightened baby bird hopped into the open garage chirping in fright. My son who happened to be at my house first had to move a table and a filing cabinet out of the garage to reach the scared little bird who had hopped deep into the cluttered garage. He trapped the baby bird carefully scooped up into a little box without touching it and safely released it back into the overgrown bush where its nest lay.
I want all the birds in our neighborhood to know they are welcome to visit our premises and raise their young. Every day I watch them come to and fro our feeders. Soon I will put out nectar for our hummingbird feeders and watch the miniature “helicopters” come back and forth and jostle for position at their feeders. We will have one feeder at the window just so we can watch them closeup.
There is such a variety of birds that come to our feeders. The magnificent ten inch long red bellied woodpecker with its gorgeously marked red head occasionally feeds on our suet feeder 
(which I have placed right next to the trunk of the large white pine tree) and there is his companion–the smaller downy woodpecker which stands at attention as it climbs up and down the trunk of the same tree also feeding on the suet. Then there is the diminutive brown creeper who is aptly named who also feeds on the suet and my favorite–the fearless chickadee whose antics I always love watching.
This is, of course, an incomplete list. I want them all to feel welcome and the birds continue to come here in a constant stream. I joyously greet them each morning and watch them all day and never know when an odd bird makes its appearance like the indigo buntings that seem to come through here once or twice a year in flocks. I never know for sure what I will see outside my window. I want the birds to always feel welcome.
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