feed the birds

My Mum and I went to the park today. There’s a little pond there with a bunch of ducks, so we took some bread crumbs to feed them.

It was funny, three of them saw as from a distance and started following us, and they got so close I probably could have touched them…but I didn’t, for fear of being…beaked? What do you call it when a duck bites you, anyways?

In any case, it was quite fun aside from the heat and the fact that the water was really gross. It looked stagnant, and there was this green slime everywhere. That particular part of the park looks like it has the potential to be very pretty, but it needs some work.

Oh, and I nearly walked into a spiderweb with this HUGE spider in it. I’ve never seen a spider like that before. If I remember correctly it was a kind of shiny blue color and seemed to be more leg than anything else, and it had to be one of the biggest spiders I’ve ever seen… so I took a picture of it. I hope it turns out.

On that note, I also saw a snake. There was this little gazebo out on an island in the middle of the pond, and I was about to go out to it when my mom stopped me and pointed under the bridge. There was a piece of pipe sticking out, and a little snake was curled up on top of it sleeping.

I freaked out a little, but once I had calmed down and determined that it wasn’t lunging at me…and that it was actually kinda cute…I took a picture of it too. I’m not sure what sort of snake it was, but if the pictures turned out maybe I’ll have someone look at it.

We also visited the rather dismal rose garden while we were in the park. We’ve been getting a lot of rain lately, so I was a little surprised by how dry and sickly-looking everything was. Then again, maybe they were droopy because of the heat. Anyways, Mum took a couple pictures of me sitting on the edge of a fountain, grinning like a moron.

I think I’ll go back to the park again sometime when the weather cools off a little.

I want to go to one of the parks and feed the ducks and geese. That could be a nice way to spend a day.

I could also simply go outside and feed the grackles. We get lot of those here, especially in the fall and winter, and everyone seems to find them annoying. On the other hand, I think they’re really neat, the way there will be hundreds, or even thousands of them along the rooftops and power lines.

It’s very pretty, in an Alfred Hitchcock sort of way…

My bird friends are happy! At least they should be, there is a feast laid out for them in my back yard! I have three feeders of black oil sunflower seeds and a thistle feeder and a hummingbird feeder. I still would like to get some suet for my woodpecker friends and still need to clean out the bird bath, but I am considering this goal achieved because I saw a bird at the feeder. Now I just have to maintain it!

I used to feed my wild bird friends religiously, now they are probably starving! I need to buy some seed and clean out the bird bath and make some hummingbird nectar…I’m off.

In my living room I have a french door with a railing outside where I use to hang pots with flowers in the summertime. Now I have two small evergreen trees there and underneath I have hung two balls of bird food. Just below my apartment (on the first floor) we have a garden with two big cherry trees and a hedge rigth outside my windows. As for now about 50 small birds are sitting in the hedge and as soon as I hung up the food and closed the door, they flew straight up to and began to eat of them.

Right now when I stand inside I can observe these tiny cute birds while eating from a distance of only 15 cm. Its fascinating. There are mostly great tit (are they called that??), sparrows, blue titmouse (I love them!) and robins. I convince myself that I can recognise some of them from day to day and have given them names like Mrs. Bluehead, Captain Sparrow and Little Miss Tinkle (I know Im a geek) :-)

I’m only giving this up temporarily. I don’t really think it needs to take up room on my main list right now especially since it’s on my list of things to do this autumn. So I’ll mark it as done once I actually get around to it.

I need to get my feeders set back up though rather than just spreading some seed on the ground. Hopefully I can get it done this weekend.

We have bird feeders outside on our deck within view of our kitchen table. It’s great to glance out and see a cardinal, a goldfinch or an occassional squirrel eating while we are having a meal too. It’s one of the ways I like to connect with nature on a daily basis.

Done – they haven’t shown up yet, but the feeder is out there. The squirrels will enjoy it, if nothing else.

buy a bird feeder and seed