Birds

When living within the mountain shadows there are many interesting things to watch.  Birds are one of the more interesting things to see.

In order to see better, my son constructed a bird feeder that is about ten square feet and sits on a eight foot pole underneath our kitchen window. So, when having breakfast, lunch or supper one can watch the fluttering affairs of many wild birds as they hover and land on the feeder and gorge themselves on the wild bird seeds we keep on that feeder.

I am stunned by the number of different species of birds that are indigenous to this mountain area. There are several different kinds of sparrows and three or four varieties of finches, some with red heads and some streaked in orange and white.  There is too, a startlingly beautiful bird in black, white, orange and yellow and it has the strange name Rufus Towhee. There are several kinds of chick-a-dees including the one W.C. Fields referred to when flattering Mae West. We even have an occasional Quail that fly’s up onto the feeder and nudges the doves aside so as to get a shot at its fair share of seeds. While hummingbirds like tiny buzzing helicopters hover around and above the feeder they are more often seen darting about our flower garden. All together it is not unusual to see thirty or more birds hopping about the feeder. They all seem to get along fine together with the exception of the doves which are constantly fighting with each other.

It is true that whenever one tires of television and wishes to see something even more amusing within the mountain shadows there is always bird watching to put a smile on your face and perhaps even a twinkle in your eye.

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