We've had a bird feeder in the middle of our front lawn for years now. The sun is so strong we pretty much have to buy one of those cedar feeders from WalMart every year now; one rots and gets warped in a year. We tried a plastic feeder; the birds hated it and would not eat from it. Luckily WallyWorld doesn't charge all that much.

We have a few semi-regulars, the darling little chickadees who shrill "dee-dee-dee" before they fly up, the occasional sparrow, once a nuthatch and several times some tits, but the most common visitors are the mourning doves who graze under the feeder and Mr. and Mrs. Cardinal. In fact, I can tell when the feeder needs refilling: one of them sits nearby bitching "Chit! Chit! Chit-chit! Chit!" Evidently the cardinal equivalent of "Hey, we're hungry out here! Where's the food???"

Mr. Cardinal made me laugh earlier in the week. Wednesday I was changing after work and saw him land on the roof of the shed, which is outside our bedroom window. He looked about anxiously, flirting his tail, and then hopped into the gutter. Although James cleaned out the gutters thoroughly last spring, they're full of leaves and gunk again. At the end of the gutter on the shed, there is a place where the leaves have been depressed into a small hollow. It was at this Mr. Cardinal was pecking and "chipping" excitedly.

I caught him doing it in the same place the next day. I think he's trying to convince Mr.s Cardinal that this is a good place to nest. "Chit! Chit! chit-chit!" "Look, hon, it's nice and soft! Already lined with leaves! Comfy! All it needs is a few of your down feathers and it'll be a great nursery for the kids!"

Mrs. Cardinal has not made an appearance. I can imagine her on another tree branch. "Chit-chit! Chit! Chit!" "Fred, for crying out loud, quit being so lazy and build us a proper nest! Honestly, men want the chicks and never want to do any of the work..."

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 2:26:00 PM

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