I am seeing how long it takes. First I put out slices of orange in the suet cage and then I put out a sock full of thistle. It has been quite long since I saw the last goldfinch. And I am curious what birds, if any, are attracted to the slices of orange. I will keep my eyes open. I like surprises. So we will see.

I put out all my birdseed.  I was out of all my different kinds–regular, sunflower, suet and thistle.  A nuthatch immediately found the birdseed (regular) on the platform I laid seed on.  I put fresh thistle for the goldfinch.  My wife said they all migrated away.  I suspected the thistle (which I had bought months ago) had gone stale.  I will see who is right.  I almost never run out of feed for them.  It was only a day so they were not out of feed too long.  Anyway, I now will continue to watch the visitors that come to my feeders.

I put out fresh thistle today.  I had not seen a goldfinch in weeks.  I tried scraping out the caked thistle as best as I could using the end of a knife before putting out new thistle.  Let us see if the goldfinch come back.  And how long it will take.

It is going on three days after I put out fresh thistle and still I have spotted no goldfinch coming to that feeder.  I don’t know whether there is something wrong or the goldfinch have not discovered the thistle yet.  I have my eyes posted.  We will see.

Let us see when the goldfinch come back.  I just emptied and cleaned their feeder and put fresh thistle in it.  There was some odd combination of bird feed they were not coming to.  This is the time of the year (early spring) I can see up to two dozen goldfinch at one time–some feeding on the ground on thistle that spills over from their feeder.  Now they are drab looking but they will soon change to normal coloration–males then becoming partly bright yellow.  Let us see how many days it takes them to discover the fresh thistle.

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.

bluebird

The dawn is only an hour away.  I can not wait to see the first chickadees come to my feeders.  They never fail to delight me.  I am always thrilled by the magnificent red-bellied woodpeckers who come to feed on the suet I have put out near the trunk of the large pine tree outside my large living room window.

The downy woodpeckers come during the day.  They seem to stand at attention as they feed and go around the trunk of the tree.  The occasional cardinals who feed on the ground are very wary.  The beautiful bright red male cardinal never fails to delight me, too.

Every once in awhile I see a brown creeper.  And the many goldfinch who love the thistle I put out for them.  They will sit at the feeder for five minutes eating the thistle.  Often there will be a dozen feeding on the ground.  I can not wait for the males to turn yellow again.  Before, I rarely saw them.  Now they have become commonplace.  Maybe, now I take them for granted.  The slate covered junco come in flocks and might have gone away.

These are the more common birds I see out of my window every day but I never know when I will be surprised.  I am waiting to see if I see any flocks of indigo buntings.  They are such beautiful birds who I only see a few times a year.

There are also the piliated woodpeckers.  I usually hear them not see them.  Their wild cackle is unmistakable and when I am lucky I actually spot one with its large long red crown.  It is such an exotic looking bird over a foot long.  I never forgot the first one I spotted outside my house.  I had to run into the house to grab my binoculars to get a good look at it.  It was over a hundred feet away perched on a stump.  I absolutely love birds.  I have all my life.  I guess you got that idea.