THE BIRDS

When I was in junior high school Alfred Hitchcock produced a film called "THE BIRDS". In the movie the birds go berserk and start attacking people, pecking at them, beating on them with their wings, clawing at them and crapping on them (although Hitchcock doesn't show the last part, I'm sure the birds would have thought of that part first) Anyway, we walked around for weeks after we saw that movie looking suspiciously at the birds.

Flash forward, and here I am spending money trying to attract birds into my garden. Last week I bought hummingbird syrup, black sunflower seeds, two more feeders, and some more suet blocks. The week before I bought a better hummingbird feeder, more seed and a case of suet blocks.

All of this feeding really has paid off, but one thing I discovered right away. As much food as you want to put out there, they will eat. Not only that, but they must spread the word around because I'm now filling the main feeder twice or three times a week and the suet three or four times. I'm also a little worried about the single humming bird which has discovered my new feeder. He ate so much the other day I was worried he wouldn't be able to take off. He did make it, but only to a tree branch where he sat looking all bloated (if you can imagine a bloated humming bird) This little guy goes by the name Rufus, and he's kind of orange with a bright, irridescent red throat. I was standing about two feet from him looking out the bedroom window when he flew up, which brings me to another point about this whole bird thing.

I'm getting old! I mean I can't think of a past time that defines old age better than sitting and watching birds. Now, I know there are serious bird watchers that crawl through the mud to a blind to watch and photograph birds, but that's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about sitting in the comfort of the bedroom or deck with a drink in hand watching the birds come and go and maybe dozing a little bit if I'm so fortunate as to have sunshine. Be that as it may, I really find I like it. It's a little bit like people watching at the mall. You never know what you might see.

Anyway, I tried taking a few pictures of some of the birds that were attracted by the feeders and now I'm thinking I need a better camera. You see how quickly this can get out of hand? I mean, most birds are so small and I can only zoom in so much and get so close without frightening them. Doing a little research on line I've discovered that the prices for the recommended cameras for really serious bird photography are pretty frightening. So, the pictures I'm posting are not nearly as good as they could be, but they are far better than trying to tell someone about the cool Pileated Woodpecker we saw last Saturday. As the old adage goes, one picture is worth a thousand words. So rather than writing another few thousand words I'm going to post a couple of pictures taken lately.