Yesterday before the snow started I went out to top off the bird feeder. If you've seen the pics, the feeder was one of those that looked like a little house; you took off the peaked top and filled that way. The seed level could be seen through transparent plastic sides.

I set the feeder on the rail carefully and opened the "roof," making sure it was stable, then turned away to open up the seed container. Obviously it was no longer stable because it then did a somersault off the deck rail and landed in the yard. The plastic sides shattered. I tossed it all away.

Keith had given each of us bird feeders and seeds for Christmas. The feeder was a transparent tube, wider at the top than at the bottom, with eight feeding stations, four on top of four. I don't have the paperwork that went with it, so I am unable to find it online. It does not look like this feeder, however, the plastic perches on it are short like the metal ones on the feeder linked. They are also adjustable to several positions, so you can feed cardinals with the perches twisted out to the full position or just the little guys, chickadees and nuthatches, with the perches twisted inward so they are shorter. The perches are thin plastic and anything big, like a crow or a squirrel trying to hang on, will get a rude surprise.

So I put that out instead just before it started snowing. I wondered how long it would take the birds to get use to this one, but I needn't have worried: they have taken to it like those proverbial ducks to water. It looks like Crackerbarrel at dinnertime: chickadees, at least four brown-headed nuthatches, the white breasted nuthatch, pine siskins, tufted titmice, a wren who was singing the most lovely song, even a couple of bluebirds (although they were more comfortable eating the seeds that spilled down to the ground) and a female cardinal. The suet drew the downy woodpeckers, Mr. and Mrs., and even the red-headed and red-breasted woodpeckers. So pretty to watch!

Labels: birds

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 3:20:00 PM

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