Bird Feeding

One of the pleasures of winter is feeding birds. I don't feed them in warm weather because bears will come and destroy the feeders to get the seed. It's now illegal in Virginia to feed bears, even unintentionally!

Here we see a blue jay on a log and a junco on a new feeder that I bought because it's cute. This was before the squirrel pulled off some of the decorations and dumped out all the seed.

The Carolina wren is perched on a cage that holds a seed bell. This one is seasoned with red pepper so Mr. Squirrel does not bother it. However, I have seen Mrs. Squirrel nibbling red pepper suet, and I guessed she was very hungry because she had babies to feed.

Uh, oh! A hawk is in a tree. That day there were two of them, so perhaps they were courting. It's that time of year.

They flew away after a few minutes, fortunately for my little bird friends.

The red bird feeder is said to be squirrel proof. Here Charlie is learning that his weight pulls the levers closed, shutting off access to the seeds that are inside.

Squirrels are persistent and have nothing better to do than figure out how to get food. I watched Charlie spend some time exploring the bolts on the feeder, trying to see if he could take the contraption apart. I gave up watching him but he did not succeed. The feeder is still intact.

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