Feed the Birds

Here in north Texas, winter is coming on fast, and it's time to take better care of our feathered friends. Their natural food sources are drying up, so fill your bird feeders and watch them descend for a meal. You'll be entertained all season long.

I grew up loving birds. It was exciting to have a brilliant red cardinal come to the feeder outside the kitchen window for a meal of sunflower seeds. (My enthusiasm was probably reinforced by the fact that my grandmother in Tulsa, Oklahoma always had one of those fabric calendars with pictures of crdinals on it hanging in her kitchen.) So, like Mary Poppins, I have always enthusiastically fed the birds.

Today, we have bird feeders in both the front and back yards. Cylinder or tube feeders. And platform feeders. Filled with a variety of seeds: sunflower, safflower, and millet. Even shelled and unshelled peanuts. It's a veritable bird buffet.

And we're rewarded with a varied clientele. Male and female cardinals--always cautiously chirping and looking around for intruders. Mourning doves and white-winged doves...sometimes as many as twelve at a time. Sparrows and wrens. Blue jays loudly competting for the peanuts. And woodpeckers who alight on the feeders and jealously keep all intruders away. It's always a show.

Sometimes, my favorites the mockingbirds even come by. For them we put out fruit (apples, pears, oranges) or even mealworms. One year, one of them became so accustomed to his morning feeeding that he would sit in a tree outside the back door and "fuss" if I didn't feed him early enough.

If you're particularly adventurous, you can put out a feeder with thistle seed to attract the goldfinches. It can be hit or miss (one year we had five or six regulars, other years, only one or two every now and then), but is worth the gamble.

Store your seed in large plastic tubs. (You don't want other uninvited critters partaking.) And make sure you buy good-quality seed from a place like Wild Birds Unlimited. (They have sales periodically that make stocking up worth it.)

It's a great way to bring nature into your backyard. Hang your own feeder(s). Fill them up. And watch the fun. It's far more entertaining than television!