We have a bird
feeder. We are pretty good about keeping it stocked, though sometimes I get so
bothered by the mess that I don’t fill it for a week or two. Birds are messy
eaters. They flick seeds away while they are trying to get down to the good
stuff. Before long there are seeds all over the back porch. It will need to be
swept before the feed can attract any of the critters that we don’t want to
attract to our back porch (the night foragers).
Also on our
back porch are pots with various plantings: potatoes, peas, and flowers.
Sometimes after the potatoes, peas or whatnot have been harvested, the bird
seeds will have landed in the pots and begin to sprout. We had a mystery plant
growing in one of our pots this summer which we originally thought might be
corn (there is corn in the bird feed). As it developed, we decided it was
millet. Now the tassels of the millet have developed enough so that the birds
have noticed them and are feeding off the seeds.
It is oddly
satisfying seeing four or five birds perched on a stalk or the wire frame
around it, feeding on the plant we didn’t plant. It’s like a bonus. We sneak a
look out the window, trying not to scare them off. Finches, sparrows and other
LBJ’s (little brown jobs). No, we are not great birders. I can’t always tell
you what kind of bird it is that is visiting us. We just enjoy watching them. Interactions
that we see as cute, the birds may see differently. They chase each other off
and scold each other. Bullies. But they are so small and delicate flitting this
way and that, defying gravity, that we can’t take them seriously as mean or
scary. We are just big lumbering humans after all.
Watching nature
be nature is emotionally satisfying. Never mind the mess; I need to get that
bird feeder filled up.
birds flit about
gathering necessaries
autumn’s approach
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