The first part is, I have cool friends. getting gifts for adults is always a challenge. But a long time friend noticed, by my Facebook feed, that I had gotten into birding over the last year. She put 2 and 2 together, and Santa wrapped up a bird feeder for me.
The second part is a poor experience in the past. Many years ago I had gotten a small generic bird feeder, and filled it with generic seeds. To make a long story short, House Sparrows took over, emptied the feeder daily, and covered my porch with bird poop. That ended that bird feeder.
I'm hoping to do better this time. The first results have been good so far.
My friend got me 'song bird' mix, so I'm starting with that to see what the results are so far. Since birds only really need feeders in the winter, I mounted it where i keep a hanging plant during the summer.
I filled the feeder and waited.
And so far, so good.
I saw a couple of house sparrows, but they didn't stay long. Who did stay long was a house finch that I've been seeing in the crabapple tree. Actually, they must have been hungry, as Mr and Mrs hour finch were there for about an hour munching away.
but apparently they are messy eaters. The bird feeder holes are small, as are the perches - so I don't think the larger birds can feed here . But since the finches are such messy eaters, they are leaving extra seeds below the feeder - which my local cardinals and blue jays are taking advantage of. (As well as a white throated sparrow...)
The last guest of the day was a little clumsy. A Black-Capped Chickadee also found the feeder, but seemed to have some difficulty. he saw the seeds, but it took some time to realize he had to go to an access port.
So a pretty good first day at the feeder. Best pics I could get shooting through the window with bad lighting. Will keep an eye on the feeder to see if I get some different visitors soon!
