Buffalo Gal

It is time for a Bird Feeder/Bird Watcher update. A lot of the birds of summer are long gone. The birds out on the deck are pretty drab right now…grays, browns and combinations of brown and tan stripes. They are all about the same size (relatively small) but all of them seem to eat double their weight each day. They like to eat off the deck….the hanging finch feeder has been ignored for a few weeks so I emptied it onto the deck and they eat the finch food madly when it is on the deck!
I tried to identify a new birdie in my FIELD GUIDE TO BIRDS. I know it is a sparrow but there are so many kinds of sparrows I can’t get it…the new birds also move around a lot making it hard to get a good look at them. These sparrows are bigger than the other birds.
The finches are still here and will be all winter; the goldfinches are now sporting their winter-wear..dark tan bodies but they have their distinctive wing markings. The Red Finches (who are really Purple Finches but I cannot say “purple” about a bird who is so colorfully arrayed in rosy red feathers on its head and chest.) …. anyway there are lots of these rosy red finches on the deck.
The nuthatches and chickadees are constant presences also. The chickadees are so perky with their little black caps and their sassy tail feathers which they flash at other birds when they try to intimidate them. I have seen nuthatches crouch low on the deck railing and take a run at other birds they want to drive away from the food.
For being such little “squirts” they are feisty.
This morning I saw a confused looking black and white Hairy Woodpecker trying to figure out where the suet feeder had gone. I took it in to replace the suet cakes and the big Hairy could not understand where it was. It came back quickly when I got the filled suet feeder back out on the deck.
I also had the pleasure of spotting a HUGE red capped Pileated Woodpecker this week. It was hanging awkwardly on the suet feeder and I guess I will have to get out the old bread pan with its brick weight in it to keep the Pileateds from such strenuous acrobatics on the regular suet feeder. Two winters ago the Pileated couple visited the bread pan twice a day and it seemed easier for such big birds to feed out of…..
I will never get used to the yellow prehistoric looking eyes on Pileated Woodpeckers…they give me the “evil eye” and I get the creeps from looking at the golden orbs which stare back at me. They still look like small flying dinosaurs!!!!
There are bluejays also but they are staying away from the deck..I see them fly in to the underside of the deck where I keep some food on the concrete also. They also hang out under the spruce trees where I put birdfood and stale bread slices.
The sunflowers have been stripped bare of their seeds in my small vegetable garden. The birds all love to eat the sunflwowers “fresh” from the large flower that has matured and formed lots of seeds. It is worth it to have a row of sunflowers each summer.
My only “pets”now are the birds and I love to watch them and feed them.