An Afternoon with the Birds

It took me a couple of years of trial and error to figure out what food works best for the majority of the birds in my area that also detracts from squirrels. I don’t mind squirrels that much except for two years they ate holes in my feeders. I tired Crisco on the feeder pole. I tried a baffle and I even put a slinky around the pole like in the picture below.

That seemed to work…somewhat, but mostly I changed their food. I now mostly have safflower seed which is a variety the birds enjoy and the squirrels don’t. YAY! The doves love the platform feeder and sometimes you will see the other birds wait on them to leave then they will eat.

So I added other types of feeders to help everybody get some. Here is a sparrow enjoying some basic wild bird food from a feeder that I got at Hobby Lobby and painted myself.

The most fun this afternoon came from the House Finches. The males are a beautiful red and I think who came by was a father and son. The larger of the two was showing the smaller bird the feeder. At one point he walked over and handed some seed to the smaller bird.

The fun part came after this feeding lesson. The younger bird went to the bath and had a good time. I don’t have a super good camera (or expert technique) and while the picture looks a bit fuzzy, that is actually water being slung everywhere. I thought this would bring a smile to someone, for that is the purpose of blogging, at least to me it is; to share the things that make me smile.

Well enough of my armature photos. I hope they made you smile. Remember the power of a smile. Even without words, a smile can show kindness and relieve someone’s hurt.

Smile and Be kind often