Louise's Utopia: How To Get More And More Birds At Your Home Using Spa-Like Services- #birdbaths and birdseeds

Lately, I have been putzing through my days of sunshine and happiness. I recently added another bird bath to my immediate yard, not to the fields! I have mentioned in previous blogs that when we moved here, the birds were non-existent; there were none to be found.

I did some reading and discovered some new or old ways to attract those feathered friends into my yard. One idea I read about was to provide food and water. I was not a big fan of the food idea, as I am a total cheapskate. Ha! I am not paying for their meals, groceries are expensive enough. I went with the bird bath suggestion and garnered a small-sized bird bath.

A pair of black-capped chickadees were my first guests to take a bath! They were so adorable when they discovered the little spa on the prairie. It was as if they were in shock. Maybe they were surprised the bath seemed poured just for them! They dipped their feathers and wings and flitted around in the water for some time in this whimsical little manner. They looked entirely pleased with themselves as they shook their little wings as they climbed out of the frigid water. My family and I stood peering at them from the window, we felt great happiness. We all acted as if we had just seen an Academy Award-winning showing of the Marx Brothers. They did not receive an award, but they deserved one. Of course, it wasn't a great, comical movie or even a long display to watch, but the happiness it provoked in all of us was enough to think that it could have been. Recently, I was also given a bird feeder to use. This feeder was stocked with seeds that had already been paid for! Lucky me! But, I was still not that intrigued by the idea of offering food, as it's probably not the best scheme for the birds. They need to work for their food, so they do not depend on me. Plus, I do not support the furthering of socialist governments. I was still more interested in just offering them water to entice them into my little realm, here in the grasslands. Anyhow, somehow that bird feeder made its way onto a tall metal hook that deeply stuck in the dirt near the smaller bird bath! The feeder was humbly filled, not to the top, by a seagull supporter, and I hope you know what that means. Think the Walmart parking lot... So, what did I do? I patiently waited for the birds! What else would I do?

The first takers of the handout meal were a pair of American Goldfinches. I tried to get a quick picture of them, but these little fellers must have excellent vision or contain motion detectors built into their tiny, yellow bodies, because they always flew away! The finches began to come daily (and still do), but I am still unable to get a good picture of the pair. Go figure. They fly in and make a huge mess, and all the seeds they seemingly do not want to eat drop to the ground. They are carefree recipients of their handouts. Their incessant dropping of seeds on the ground has worried me, as I do not want to attract mice even outside. Mice are filthy, foul creatures.

A grackle arrived, and he tried sorely to balance himself on the small perch attached to the bird feeder. He managed to stand up straight, but it was not easy for him to stay in place as he was too big and the perch was too small; it swayed, making him noticeably uncomfortable. He wisely, however, jumped to the ground and quickly discovered the finches; he watched them, and he learned. His clever observance paid off for his belly, as I will explain, with his next decision. He did not bother or become bullyish toward the finches as grackles are known to be at feeders; no, he was clever enough to wait on the ground for the messy little finches to drop their seeds. He found that he only needed to bend his little head down effortlessly and eat as long as the yellow birds above made their mess below. I could see he was well pleased with their servile stupidity toward him, the little king. After that, in the days that followed, many grackles arrived while the two small finches made their big messes. The grackles stood patiently below, waiting to eat. I found it intriguing how quickly they learned the gig, and they must have taught each other, too, because they all joined the fray. Let the finches do the work, and we will eat! The grackles appeared more intelligent than the finches, or at least they were more thoughtful. Their strange gait is reminiscent of royalty in some way. They bounce up in the air as they walk around pecking food and fighting with one another. They can jump high too, two to five inches in the air, and six inches forward, and they do not always seem to use their wings to do this. It seemed strange to see birds walking on the ground so much, as I imagined they'd eat while flying, because to my brain, walking seemed very odd for a bird. But they do it! All the while they walked, they were gingerly foraging on the meal dropped by the finches perched above them on the feeder. After much spying on the unaware birds, days passed, and I purchased another extra-large bird bath for the yard. Having multiple-sized baths for all the different-shaped avian available that you may or may not attract is a smart idea. This larger bath has yet to attract any birds, it only waters Miso the cat. He takes his afternoon drinks there in the bird bath after eating mice, his mouth dripping with rodent...

I also saw the most beautiful red-headed woodpecker in the world on my garden fence. He was magnificent, very healthy-looking. We all cheered again when this red-hatted fellow arrived. In my excitement, I took a horrible iPhone picture that served no justice to his handsomeness. Usually, birds fly right off when I try to take their pictures, but he stayed on and let us admire him. I had the thought that I would get my real camera since the woodpecker lingered on the fence, and he was worthy of a nicer picture. I left the windowsill, but I couldn't find my camera anywhere! It turns out that it was right before my eyes all the time I'd looked for it, but that is getting ahead. I frantically ran to my room, looking for the camera, then I ran back, making sure he was still there! Each time I left, I was always unable to find the camera, and he was doing all these gallant moves on my fence. So beautiful! I couldn't believe it, what a show-off he was being. He was trying to manage a position for his beak to peck the wood on the fence. I finally found my camera sitting right before my eyes, what a bag! I had put it away on the shelf, and bingo, you guessed it, when I had the good camera in tow, the red-headed beauty was gone with the wind! He had flown to a better wood somewhere in the trees. Disappointment won me over. Since then, new and exciting birds have come and gone. Of all of these, none have been photographable, at least by me; they flit away too quickly. We will see if I can snap a shot in the future. I hope that I get a great shot of those little feathers. I'll need to get a photo of those birds at the feeder and, at best for this blog, at worst, to prove to myself that I can. And if you're looking at a good photo above, perhaps that means that I did it! :)

Update: I was unable to make the birds pose, and the food was gone very quickly! More soon.

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