Except it’s not. It’s really, really hard on them. We’ve been below zero quite a few times. Also, the snow buries a lot of their regular food.
This time of year my bird feeder just doesn’t have enough slots to service all the customers.
So, I just lay a whole line of sunflower seeds out on the railing of my deck. Here are a few visitors.
The Line-Up
That was nowhere as full as the railing gets. It just shows the ones brave (or hungry) enough to come back shortly after I showed up with my camera.
I get a lot of cardinals. Here’s one with a sparrow.
Tweet For Two
More on the railing. That third bird is a junco (I’m pretty sure).
Three of a Batch
I also have some bushes nearby. That provides them with a bit of cover. You can also see a female cardinal in there.
Protected
As you can see, it’s snowing.
Dining Al Frigido
I’ll finish with a couple of shots of one of the cardinals.
Redbird
In this one, you can see that he just pick up one of the sunflower seeds and is ready to crack it.
Chomp
It gets really crowded back there. I’m going through a 25 pound bag about every two weeks.
Look like my backyard during a normal winter. But we got six inches of snow last night. But it is time to go fill up the feeders again.
Ornithologists would prefer that you NOT feed the sparrows. They are an invasive species that negatively impact the population of native songbirds. See http://www.sialis.org/hosp.htm
“Without question the most deplorable event in the history of American ornithology was the introduction of the English Sparrow.” -W.L. Dawson, The Birds of Ohio, 1903
In the link I provided above,
“It is better to have no box at all than to allow House Sparrows to reproduce in one. “
Well, I don’t know how to keep the sparrows from stopping by.
The link I provided specifies many ways to control and deter sparrows.
Right. First item on the list:
Did you notice that I use nothing but black oil sunflower?
I supposed I could sit out there with a BB gun (but I froze my butt off just getting those pictures).
Nope. Sorry, I missed that. I read about one bird cracking something, and my mind read “cracked corn”, which is the exact thing you’re NOT supposed to use. Another senior moment. Maybe it’s because I’m at work where I have to wear shoes.
And not one of them appears to be wearing shoes of any kind…. 😉