TODAY IS FOR THE BIRDS!

It's baby bird season at our place. We have several different kinds of bird feeders in front of our apartment unit, arranged so that we can sit inside our living room and see through the sliding glass door just who is having meals with us. We do not seem to have a plethora of varieties visiting us; it is mainly the ubiquitous sparrows, house finches and hummers, with an occasional female oriole, a single mockingbird, and in spring, a family of blackheaded grosbeaks. We have a resident phoebe, but of course it simply uses our feeder as a place from which to launch when he (or she) sees a flying meal go by. We get huge crows having shouting contests in the trees on the property and an occasional hawk looking for an interesting breakfast of small birds. One year we had a flock of cattle egrets march back and forth on the lawns clearing out the grubs, and this year we've had a group of starlings doing the same thing.

But for our little feeders, we mainly get the sparrows and the house finches. The sparrows are prolific breeders, and we love to watch the babies learn how to be birds. I call out a lot of instructions to the momma birds while they are tending to the little ones. Sometimes the little ones flutter their tiny wings and open their mouths and cheep when they see their mommas, but if momma doesn't feed them, they simply shut up and go on looking about for seeds on the ground anyway. But I still encourage the momma birds to be a little more attentive. No one likes a squalling baby!

When we moved in to this apartment we bought a small decorative cement fountain. If we had rigged some kind of pump up for it we would have had a nice "water fountain" but since we mostly wanted it for decor, we figured that wasn't necessary. However, we did set two custard-cups full of water in the bowl of the fountain, so the birds would have drinking water handy. What we have discovered is that that the sparrows also take their baths in the bowls of water.

I can't get close enough to them to take photos of all the thrashing and splashing that goes on in the custard bowl when the bathing starts. Sometimes there are as many as 5 or 6 sparrows trying to take baths at the same time. Water flies everywhere! However, the best of times comes when the new little fledglings get to the point of taking their first bath. These little guys are well on their way to becoming adults, except they still are very fat and puffy-looking. And sometimes their balance isn't all what it should be. The other day I watched a baby take his first bath. He did quite well until he got out of the cup and settled on the edge of the fountain to preen his feathers. He pulled a foot out from under a wing and tried to scratch his little head. He lost his balance and fell backwards into the bowl of the fountain. I did not think birds ever lost their balance, but this one did. He picked himself up and tried it again, with success this time. Jerry and I did a lot of laughing over that.

Most of the pictures I take of them are from inside the house and shot through the glass door and through the vertical venetian blinds that cover our apartment windows. If I pull the blinds out of the way, the birds can see us inside and will not even come to the seed bells. So my photos unfortunately have many distractions in them. However, for my own use it is worth it. You can see below one of the shots I got when the hawk decided he was ready for lunch. I was both fascinated and horrified. Once I got the picture, I ran outside, flapping my arms and yelling "NOT MY BIRDS!" as he flew away.

Once in a while we get a nice mourning dove that comes for a treat. It doesn't happen often, but when it does I worry considerably that the hawk is going to come after the dove (because that dove is slower than an old lady driving on the freeway). I always love it when the dove shows up and am relieved when it flies away.

Our Squeaky cat isn't as interested in the birds outside as one would think. If I were a cat, I'd perch up on the back of the davenport, where I could view all the birds and their provisions (a seed bell, a block of suet, hummingbird nectar and the fountain) and watch all day long. However, for the most part Squeaky pretty much ignores them. However, one day (for whatever reason I can't remember) I put a bowl of seed on my front porch and the birds had a party. I pulled the blind back, and little Squeaks found her own perch from which she could do some birdwatching of her own. For some reason the birds didn't fly away, and I think the picture I took was just about the cat's meow, blinds and glass notwithstanding.

Our little apartment has many limitation. But having birds so close at hand is a real plus.