Now I know.
Birds are hard to watch. They fly in, eat, bathe, poop....then fly off. Quick as a wink.
The only people who have time sit and WAIT with binoculars in hand are retirees.
Retirees tend to be older.
I'm not saying youngish folks can't do it. But I can't seem to work it in.
Between family, work, errands, chores... and the rest of daily life, I don't get to bird watch as much as I'd like.
And when the rare occasion happens that I do have time, life undoubtedly interrupts.
But sometimes, I get the rare treat to watch the birds. I only get a few glimpses but it is enough to tide me over until the next time.
A couple years ago we had 3 broods of hummingbirds. There were 12 individuals...that I know of...and they stayed until November, the longest any of them have stayed since.
One day I was reading on the front porch because a storm front was blowing through. There was little rain, just a really nice summer breeze. All of them came to feed before the storm. They were all OVER the feeders, squabbling over the 3 in the front yard.
They didn't care that I was on the porch, but every now and then, they would fly up to me and squeak. I'm sure they didn't like me there but I stayed still and enjoyed about 2 hours of their antics. They didn't move off until the rain started really coming down.
Last year, we had the brood of blue jays I posted about. I got to watch them a few minutes twice daily....such fun to see them. I love to watch the interaction between the adults andthe juveniles.
Then on Friday, I was lucky to see a pair of cardinals come into the back yard. The female took a couple of minutes to bathe. It was so much fun to watch her. When she was done, she hopped up to the fence and shook the water off and fluffed her feathers before flying off.
The male was in my wildflower garden, snacking on the seeds I planted. I always overseed because I don't have the heart to shoo them away. He finished snacking, then hopped up to inspect the nesting materials I have in the tree. (btw, someone has been doing some serious harvesting of those materials, the dog hair is pretty much gone and the lint has been yanked almost free.)
He had just hopped close enough to grab some when a squirrel came up and scared him off. Of course, the squirrels need nesting materials too so I guess they have been harvesting from the same source.
In all, I spent about 15 minutes watching the 2 birds but it was just enough to tide me over until next time.
5 comments:
watching the birds gives us much pleasure too
I also wish we had more time to do it :-)
We've got 3 cow birds visiting for the first time ever ...... they've become the "bosses" of one the backyard bird feeders !!!
Then yesterday we had a LARGE flock of Swee Waxbills come through ... I sat amongst them for about 15 mins - the noise was unbelievable :-)
My grandpa had birdhouses in his yard and several bird feeders on his porch so he could sit in his recliner and watch them. I used to think "how boring"? Now I can understand the beauty he saw in such simple things. Thanks for the memory Val!
I like bird watching, but I'm not old. We have such nice weather during the winter that we have birds wintering in our backyard.
Chris =]
This is cool!
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