Empty Nest

During the month of August, I faithfully kept track of a pair of Slate Colored Juncos that were nesting in one of my geraniums. I happened to be outside to witness the entire nest building process and then watched over the next several weeks as they hatched three eggs. Ironically, the babies left the nest during the same time I took Ian to Cornell so I never got to say good-bye. (I did, however, get to bury one of the young that didn't make it out of the pool. Perhaps it was Darwin's Natural Selection at work but I still cried.)

It dawned on me that Diane had also been posting about her bird feeders and that perhaps bird watching might be a subconscious way of filling the void. Either way, you know how literal I am so I started planning my winter bird feeding sanctuary.

The windows in the breakfast room are allow perfect birdwatching and the fruit from the Bradford Pear Tree attracts birds. I picked up a little bird feeder from Lowes...filled it with seed and waited.

I waited a long time, moved the feeder from the right window, to the left window to under the tree...and nothing. During Thanksgiving dinner, Diane suggested that the seed may be old or rancid so I took a trip to Lee's Feed and bought new seed and of course, another feeder too!

I dumped the old seed into a flower pot and put it on the table for the squirrels...knowing they wouldn't care what was wrong with the seed.

My 2 feeders were carefully hung and I waited.

The birds finally found the seed and the feeders. Yeah!And so did the squirrels.... I thought the feeder hanging from the eaves under the house was safe because there wasn't direct access from the tree. I was wrong. The squirrels still amuse me and I put out enough for everyone.

And yes, Diane...we do have black squirrels here in the city.