MIXING UP THE BIRD FEEDERS

I asked hubby to put the bird feeders away a couple of months ago, not a good idea, as I did not know where to find them. But, the up side of it was, that hubby had to go out in the ice and snow yesterday to retrieve the feeders for me.

Having filled the peanut feeder 'house' which holds an awful lot of peanuts, I gaily poured in mixed seeds to the remaining small feeders I had been given, which were....wide meshed peanut ones. What a mess, seeds everywhere except in a feeder!  Fortunately, I have a plastic tub into which I could sweep most of the misplaced varieties of seeds. There is no doubt I was distracted, dealing with unpacking food, travel bags and sorting out the washing. No chance of any of the washing going out on the line to dry in all that ice and snow and more snow.

The down side of the exercise was, I had to trudge outside in the ice and snow to find hubby so I could get the appropriate bird feeding containers. We'll have to fix up a two-way communication system. Calling never works.

The birds found the bird food today and we have seen crows waiting to shake the feeders to get seed onto the surface of the snow. Lots of little feathered visitors arrived too. Some birds are so small, sparrows and robins, for example, you wonder if they would survive a long hard Winter. Temperatures were below -17Celcius last night and it's only November.

SPARROWS GALORE

The two common sparrows appeared to be inseparable. Though they were about the same size as each other, one had slightly fluffier feathers. I watched their interaction for a bit. The neat one picked at bits on the pavement (probably crumbs, or maybe leftovers from a candy floss stall from the night before). The other sparrow looked on. The moment the neat one turned towards the other, its mouth opened wide and the beaked cornucopia entered. This feeding process occurred several times and when it was deemed that enough was eaten, both birds flew up to a ledge on a nearby building. 

This was obviously mum with her fledgling, possibly a late and second hatching of baby birds. We have heard much about there being a dearth of sparrows.

I have seen plenty of hedge sparrows in my garden and other varieties of small birds. 

 There was the proof in the town precinct that more sparrow life was developing. I think there is time for the young birds to strengthen up for the Winter, and if it is not a long harsh one like the last one, perhaps they will survive in number.