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8:44:00 AM EST
Feeling Happy
Hearing Music From the Movie "The Sandpiper"
For Avian Aficionados
We take them for granted but watching them proves more fascinating than I ever dreamed. If you ever get the chance to pick up the movie "The Sandpiper" be sure to get it! More the movie than the little Sandpipers. The fine music matched the theme of the movie.
Actually, there is a great story in watching birds that fly near and those that feed near your window or front porch. For example the Pelican that fly near our balcony in Marathon, Florida is magnificent in flight; often several or many in formation. They are as close as the pictures show.
The Sparrows are very common here in N. Florida but the story is quite interesting. Sparrows are a very careful bird. Before they approach the bird feeder they sit in an adjacent tree and look for predators, trouble and especially the Mocking Bird. If a Mocking Bird draws near they sense it and fly away until he leaves. Then they return and very carefully approach the feeder. At the feeder they look all around for the Mocking Bird. They take a seed and look all around again, then another seed and look again!
The observations reveal that one little bird at the feeder is being watched by many others.When they see the first little bird feeding successfully, they begin to come to the feeder and the competition for space on the feeder begins. One arrives and another leaves for a nearby branch, then returns and others leave and then return. If the bird feeder is too crowded many will drop to the ground below and feed from the spillings. Then they return and others leave! It goes on and on and on.......until the Mocking Bird arrives again. Then it starts all over again. Cardinals and Doves DO NOT frighten the Sparrows and Finches away! Nor do they threaten them.
In the early morning the Great Hawk lands on a fence post in the back yard. He has been seen chasing the Squirrel across the pasture. The Squirrel invades the bird feeder and sometimes knocks it to the ground spilling all the bird seed. The Hawk does not feed from the feeder.
Interestingly the Finch and Sparrows feed at 10:00 AM and around 4:30 PM in the afternoon, more often than not when the sun is shining. Doves feed (always in pairs) on the ground but Cardinals go to the feeder, often in pairs too.
We have a new Humming Bird feeder but it is too soon for them. Last week on a beautiful day I saw two beautiful Butterflies in the garden. When the flowers blossom there will be so many Butterflies. They seem to be seasonal and arrive over time one species and then another. When the Mimosa tree blossoms there will as many as twenty or more dancing among the cottony blossoms. A beautiful sight. Thus, I have planted from cuttings four additional Mimosa trees nearby. They produce a multitude of blossoms which are slightly pink and quite beautiful.
Today is a preview of Avians. I often go to the front porch and wish I had brought my camera because invariably some beautiful bird will come close enough for a picture. Last fall I saw a Bald Eagle chasing an Egret low to the ground in the adjoining pasture! The Egret escaped flying zig zag patterns. I now always take my camera to the front porch and will soon be rewarded. A good example of a great picture missed is of the big Squirrel swinging around in circles trying to feed on the back yard bird feeder; the Eagle and the Eggret, the Mocking Bird attacking the little Sparrows, then guarding the bird feeder possessively and the Woodpecker trying to peck a hole in the metal security light!.
The "Visions" Editorial Journal should prove to be very interesting as the summer approaches.
Richard Englefield
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I really enjoyed this entry on birds. I've always loved them and they seem to know it. Think Snow White. Yes, they have been known to fly to me, on occasion. : )
You reminded me in this entry of a woman I knew years ago who fed every species of birds in our area, atop the extended, lower roof of the back of her home. She lived next door to me and I remember, sitting at my window feeding my baby girl and watching the birds eating on that extended roof of hers. I first noticed how they stayed with their own kind. Every species in it's special spot day after day. What surprised me is that they did not allow outsiders to join them. One day, there was a sparrow who seemed to have been flying aimlessly around and then decided to try to join the other sparrows in the group who were eating heartily......The larger group of sparrows would have no part of the little guy. They chased him away. I was shocked. I wondered about the poor, hungry little guy......Are sparrows not hospitable? Do they not like strangers? Was he a sparrow who had done them wrong in the past? I'll never know but I never forgot it.
Angela
3/11/06 9:25 AM