| 548 Winter's Thaw Draws a Crowd
by Carol Buckholz
Still experiencing the sparse side of the visiting bird population, I
was looking for culinary enticements for the back yard. So I filled
juiced-out orange halves with peanut butter, enhanced with a few raisins
and nuts, and set them outside on several different surfaces.
The first taker was a squirrel that picked up an entire half like a
soup bowl, polished off the contents and carried the empty orange shell
in its mouth back to its nest. I could follow the orange dot all the way
up the hickory tree. (By the way, during the worst of the winter, the
squirrels reacted to the biting cold by intensifying the insulation
properties of their abodes. They surveyed our garden grounds to find
remaining fall leaves, stuffed them in their cheeks and retreated for
some home improvement work.)
Meanwhile, flights of starlings came out of the sky to squabble and
gobble at the orange treats. They ceased their frenzy from time-to-time,
allowing the downies to share. And when the crowd dispersed, the
red-bellied woodpeckers came in to dine. I confess to tolerating the
starlings only for the good of the others.
Now the days are getting longer and more birdsong greets the morning.
Even our local weatherman has mentioned that callers to his station have
cited a lack of winter birds, but he assures us they will return. Our
daughter, who lives in a rural area of northeastern Ohio, was graced by
the presence of a yellow-bellied sapsucker at her suet feeder for
several weeks at the end of January. She is hoping for an early spring
return of her bluebirds.
You could plant lavender bergamot to entice butterflies and
hummingbirds to your yard. With the President's Day sale flyers, a
wonderful catalog arrived in the mail from Santa Fe, New Mexico. Call
(888) 762-7333 for your own copy of "Seeds of Change," which features
certified organic seeds. Tell them the National Bird-Feeding Society
sent you. |
