RobinArmstrong wrote:
> DivaMagenta@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
wrote:
>
>> When I was a little girl, my grandmother in Wyoming had a pretty tame
>> squirrel who lived in the tree next to her porch. He would come down
>> and take a walnut from her hand.
>>
>> My dad even had a bluejay who was so tame he would hop into the house
if
>> he left the door open for him, and would fly down to eat a walnut out
of
>> his hand when he was outside!
>
>
> Neat story, Diva. I've become an obsessive birder this year. I have
> always kept the feeders filled through winter and the beginning of
> spring (I figure finding a mate and building a nest is difficult enough
> without having to hunt for food, too!). This May, I saw a bird out on
> the feeder and didn't recognize the species--had to go get the book to
> look up this little guy in a tuxedo with a red ascot. He obligingly
> turned about as I was trying to compare his features with the pictures
> in the book. Turned out, he was a rose-breasted grosbeak. They don't
> usually come to feeders, but we in the Midwest had a late frost in
> April, so the things he was accustomed to eating weren't available. I
> kept watching all day, and he later showed up with his wife and another
> male. They were beautiful. The next day, I was at a wild bird
> specialty shop looking for different kinds of feeders and fill, and we
> are year-'round feeders now.
>
> This summer, our backyard was the place all the parent birds brought
> their fledglings to eat. I didn't realize the parent birds keep feeding
> the young even after they know how to fly. We saw cardinals, robins,
> sparrows and starlings being fed from our feeders--well, okay, the robin
> was getting worms, but they were our backyard worms! The funniest sight
> was a mother starling with four babies hopping along behind her, each
> squawking and flapping its wings while she hurried and chewed up peanuts
> from the peanut feeder. She would feed one, and the other three would
> go ballistic. I felt sorry for that poor woman. My kids asked where
> the father starling was and why he wasn't helping. I bet mother
> starling wondered that, too! Now, we have four immature starlings that
> all come to the feeders at the same time, still have their spots--we
> assume they are the four babies from that day.
Great story about the starlings, Deb.
I used to rehabilitate wildlife back before I had kids and actually had
some free time. Starlings were one of my favorites, and I had one that
refused to be released. I kept him as a "pet" for 15 years. His favorite
perch was my head. :)
WR
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