I suddenly realized today that I got this funny little hobby from my father. All through my childhood I remember my dad diligently filling his feeders and making comments when a rare sighting of a cardinal happened. Plus there was the perpetual battle of dad trying to rid the feeders of the gluttonous squirrels by sending our dog outside in a blaze of fur and barking, wreaking havoc on the local wildlife.
I can't quite explain why it's so satisfying. I like the quietness and the simplicity of the ritual. I like how the chickadees come surprisenly close to me as I hang up the newly filled feeders as if to say hi and "thanks for the chow". The songbird population has dropped dramatically due to many factors, loss of habitat, disease, weather, and the rise of the feral cat population. So I like the feeling that somehow I'm helping mother nature in some small way. Maybe it's my innate love of animals. I like looking out my windows and seeing a colorful canvas of winged rainbows singing their way throughout the landscape.
Our simple little ritual starts with me grabbing my "shepherd's hook"- a tool I fashioned out of an old broom handle and thick wire for retrieving and placing the feeders from their locations. The dogs always go along with me as if they are somehow helping me with the chore. Actually they know at some point I'll let them lick the containers that the suet cakes come in - kind of like when your mom would let you lick batter bowl. I keep the feed secure in a metal trash can in the garage to keep the critters out. One by one they all get filled, then I get to sit back and watch the crowd come in.
When we first moved to our five acre home out in the country, I recall only seeing a few species of birds - chickadees, blue jays, crows, robins, and juncos. Now we have a large assortment taking up residence nearby. The ever elusive cardinal is now a regular mainstay, plus we have nuthatches, gold finches, purple finches, thrashers, grackles, wrens, larks, swallows, flickers, and four different varieties of woodpeckers including the very shy (and large) pileated woodpecker. Many more I can't recall off hand. Bluebirds are not feeder dwellers, but after I put up a birdhouse I bought from the boy scouts for ten dollars, I get three hatchings a year from that little house. I hope to put up a purple martin house in the near future.
My dad tried to instill a lot of things in me, I usually resisted. We butted heads most of the time. But this one thing he did, which he didn't push on me, I was just around to observe, is the one thing (Okay there are others) that I do and enjoy because of him. I thank him for giving this gift to me - Oh and the birds thank him too.
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