Mother's Day Weekend

For Mother's Day we decided to get some items to attract more birds to the yard. We purchased a suet feeder, a cheese cloth thistle sock, and a regular bird feeder we have already nicknamed "the cottage."

We didn't have long to wait for the show to begin. A bright red cardinal was the first on the scene. He couldn't figure out how to land at the cottage, even after flying by and attempting to hover several times. I watched for a few more minutes, and a large grey squirrel came and decided to see what smelled so good. He managed to slide down the side of the shed, and balance himself between the shed and the feeder. I could see however that the feeder was slowly getting further and further away from the side of the shed. He was eventually stretched to the point that when he tried to change position the feeder swung back against the shed with a bang, catching his tail. After this I decided to bring the cottage inside and make some changes. I fastened a 12 inch square piece of plywood to the bottom of the feeder so that there would be more room for the bigger birds and squirrels to sit/land on. This had the added benefit of holding the feeder against the shed so that it no longer swings back and forth.

Later that day a male house finch landed at the cottage. After spending what seemed like a very long time eating sunflower seeds, he spied the thistle sock. It took a couple of fly-bys for him to decide that it was worth getting close to that strange thing, but once he landed on it he loved it.



During the last week we have had some more birds become regular visitors. The house finch finally got around to showing his mate, and other friends where our feeders are. The cardinal has figured out how to land at the cottage. A couple of cat birds have found the suet feeder, and the squirrel has brought her youngsters to the smorgesborg. The robins seem to be willing to share the bird bath with the cat birds, for the time being anyway.