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Random Thoughts

For the birds

Hudson Cooper
Posted 3/31/23

Despite the occasional reminders that winter wants to stay around for a while, it is spring. Some trees are beginning to show signs of burgeoning leaves. Optimists like myself are putting away down …

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Random Thoughts

For the birds

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Despite the occasional reminders that winter wants to stay around for a while, it is spring. Some trees are beginning to show signs of burgeoning leaves. Optimists like myself are putting away down coats and replacing them with lightweight jackets. Woolen hats get shelved for my variety of baseball caps. But I do not need to check the calendar to know that warmer months are just around the corner. I leave it up to the birds.

I have an outdoor deck that protrudes from my writing room. Three years ago, on an impulse, I bought a bird feeder and a six-pound bag of songbird feed. Using zip ties, I attached the feeder to the deck’s railing. I filled the canister with some seed and sat back waiting for my fine feathered friends to find my offering.

About an hour later, a small bird with black and white feathers landed on one of the perches of the feeder, stuck its head in an opening and grabbed one sunflower seed. With a twist of its head, it flew away. Not sure if it was a male or female, I named it “Johnny One Seed.” He might have been a scout foraging for food and alerting his mates. Within ten minutes Johnny was back followed by more birds of his ilk. They dined from the four openings of the feeder.

As the day progressed many other types of my feathered friends came to sample my wares. I did not need an Audubon Guide to recognize the cardinals, robins and blue jays that took advantage of my generosity. The blue jays were so large that I heard a loud thump every time they landed on the deck.  The two cardinals seemed to be a mating pair. The bright red male often grabbed a seed and placed it in the beak of his brownish feathered mate. They became regulars eating a few times a day on my deck.

Well, the word must have spread quickly. My feeder was busy taking care of a wide variety of birds. I went online and bookmarked a number of sites that provided pictures of the birds that lived in Sullivan County. One site even allowed me to hear the recognizable calls and chirps they made. 

The addition of another type of feeder attracted other types of birds. I attached a suet feeder to the railing of my deck. Within a few hours it was discovered by a wide variety of woodpeckers. They attached themselves at all angles to the wire feeder and pecked away at the suet. They were very polite to each other. Waiting their turn patiently at the seed encrusted suet. Eventually other birds realized that the woodpeckers dislodged a lot of seeds that landed on the deck. So, as the woodpeckers pecked away, a small gathering of other birds snatched up the falling seeds.

The highlight of my newly found love of feeding birds began when I decided to buy a specialized feeder for hummingbirds. Hummingbirds are unique. Unlike any other fowl, they can fly backwards. Although it seems they feed with their elongated beaks, they actually drink nectar from a long tongue. I made my own nectar combining sugar with water. Within a week, three or four hummingbirds called my feeder home.

Every day I check on my seed feeders and my feathered friends. As part of my routine I often have to fend off unwanted pests such as a family of acrobatic squirrels and the occasional feral cat. One or two taps on my window seems to scare them off for a short while.

Most of the bird varieties seem to get along except for the bully of the sky, the blackbird. They swarm from neighborhood trees, chasing away other birds before attacking in bunches my wired feeders. Instead of plucking a seed or two at a time, they gobble the food in bunches. The blackbirds have great eyesight which helps me out. All I have to do is raise my hand from anywhere in my room and the flock flees for distant trees. 

So, as the song goes “bye, bye blackbirds.”

Hudson Cooper is a resident of Sullivan County, a writer, comedian and actor.

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