Mar
24
2013
I just put out a fresh suet cake for the birds and a white breasted nuthatch found it within seconds. That amazed me: that a bird would find it so quickly. I wonder what keen senses birds must possess to locate food. Is it smell or sight or was it just coincidence that the bird found the suet cake so quickly. It could be habit. I regularly put suet out for the birds, particularly for the woodpeckers. I just wonder about that.
Jun
14
2011
The grackles are scaring the other birds away in my front yard. I had to stop putting out suet cakes. The grackles liked them too much. And the woodpeckers (red bellied and downy) stopped coming. And other birds attracted to the suet. Like the brown creeper and white breasted nuthatch. More than once I saw a grackle take a bite of suet and go back to grab another and they still had not swallowed the first bite which was still hanging from their beak. I did not know how to discourage them. I know they are God’s creatures.
I wish they would go away. Nevertheless they knew a good thing when they saw it. They also would feed on the bird seed I scattered on the ground. I did not mind them sharing the suet cakes with the woodpeckers but they chased them away. I was going through at least one cake a day. They are almost a dollar at WalMart. Even with no suet cakes being put out they are still coming although not as many. I just don’t know what to do. I miss the suet feeding birds I used to see regularly from my front window.
Feb
16
2010
We love the large pine tree outside our living room window, which is the center of attention. I placed a suet cage right next to its trunk. There are a steady stream of woodpeckers mostly downy who feed on the suet. The squirrels also come.
The downy woodpeckers travel up and down its trunk seemingly at attention. Only one bird is allowed to feed on the suet at one time. The others make sure of that. Sometimes there is as much as two or three downy woodpeckers on the trunk of the tree at one time.
Occasionally a red bellied woodpecker makes its entrance. The sight of it makes me gasp. It is a bigger woodpecker with an one inch red stripe that goes from the back of the top of its head to its nape of its neck (at least the male looks that way). I had never seen one before and now they are regular visitors.
The white breasted nuthatch also likes the suet as well as the Carolina wrens who I have fallen in love with. I did not know wrens could get that big. Occasionally a cardinal will alight on one of its branches briefly.
We get occasional visits by the brown creeper who has a long curved beak and is a small brown colored bird who appropriately creeps up and down the pine’s trunk. And these are only the birds we remember seeing.
This year a large branch was brought down by an ice storm which became our Christmas tree when I cut off part of it. We used the rest of it for our tree. It was one of the most beautiful trees we ever had lit up by several hundred multicolored lights. Both of us love this tree and consider it to be our friend.
Feb
13
2010
There were certain birds I never saw before I started feeding them. A red bellied woodpecker was one. I never saw a Carolina wren before. Those are two birds that quickly come to mind.
There are others like a white breasted nuthatch who likes feeding on the suet I put out for the woodpeckers. I never had a large living room window facing the yard before from where I can watch the birds come to and fro several bird feeders.
Our window faces a large white pine and there are bushes on the edge of the porch. When the frost is ended I will put out sugar water and watch the daily parade and antics of the ruby throated hummingbirds feeding on them.
I consider myself lucky to have this situation. I have always loved birds and I get a lot of pleasure of watching the steady stream of them.
Dec
28
2009
It is so easy to take God’s creatures for granted. I have been feeding the birds since I moved here. I remember how excited we were when we first put up the finch feeder and the first goldfinch appeared.
I never ever saw a tufted titmouse and now we get a steady stream of them every day. Very seldom did I see downy woodpeckers until I placed a suet feeder near the trunk of the large pine tree which can be viewed outside our living room window.
I never saw the white-breasted nuthatch who has become a regular visitor to our yard. It likes both the suet and the sunflower seed I put out.
And there are other visitors we get every day. How easy does it become to become jaded. And forget these are all creatures created from above and deserve our praise and wonder.
Somehow you need to restore this quality and see these birds again with true amazement. How do you see things as if it was the first time? I have no answers.
PS Thoreau in Walden said it much better: ‘Nothing is greater than to have an expectation of the dawn which will never forsake you even in our soundest sleep.’ I am not sure whether this is an exact quote but it is close.
Nov
18
2009
I find it interesting that sometimes for days I did not notice the birds that came to and fro feeding on my bird feeders viewed from my large living room window but sometimes I don’t.
And I know they have not stopped coming. The sunflower seed in the bird feeder closest to my window keeps going down so I know there has been a steady stream of mostly tufted titmouse with an occasional chickadee and white breasted nuthatch feeding there.
To me it is interesting I do not always see what is right in front of me. My mind is just elsewhere. And how many other things do I not see which are happening in front of me because I am preoccupied?
All that is interesting to me. I always wonder what am I missing every day because my thoughts are somewhere else…
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