Cheery little birds...

Meet Carpodacus mexicanus, also less exotically known as "House Finch." He and his friends are regular feeders at our deck. They stand out even on the most wintery, grey days because of their lovely vermillion red coloring. I love to hear their happy warbling, it warms my heart on a cold day, so much so that I have to pop outside and sprinkle them some fresh seed.

I put seed out at least once a day for the birds, especially when its cold, and I usually do so first thing in the morning, but..., sometimes on the days when I'm still half asleep, I like to sit for a while, with a cup of hot tea (Earl Grey please with a touch of half and half.) I like to take a few minutes to ponder life's many mysteries.. (or, more likely to try and figure out the weird dream I'd had during the night!)

But its not long before I get the feeling I'm being watched.., usually Caelin (sat clutching his cup of hot Earl Grey,) will say.."they're looking at you," or "their waiting for their breakfast." I turn around slowly in my chair and find half a dozen pairs of beady little eyes staring at me , looking down at the empty feeder, then back up at me. Then, perhaps they'll hop a little further along the deck, look down.. oops!...no seed, then look meaningfully back at me... This goes on for a few minutes.. (I can't take the guilt for much longer than that...) About this time, I get up, and they get to pretend to be afraid of me, and fly off to a nearby branch, (where they can still keep a close eye on me) as I clomp my clogs on and go out to the bin where the seed is stored.

At this point they all start chattering furiously between themselves, I imagine them saying..., "about time" and "I thought she was never going to finish with that cup of tea" and other such things, and before I know it all the trees are full of chatterings (news travels fast in the woods.) I fill the feeders first, at which point, (usually) a black-capped chickadee (too ravenous to wait) will swoop down, give a quick "dee, dee, dee," grab a sunflower seed and zip off again to a safe post. I then sprinkle seeds along the railing, by this time, the gossip in the trees is quite raucous and they are all positively besides themselves with anticipation... So I click the bin shut "click, click" and head inside. By the time I've taken my clogs off, warmed up the remainder of my tea, and taken my post at the chair by the window... we have a host of little winged treasures, just like the one pictured above, happily noshing down their breakfast at various speeds, talking between nibbles, arguing as to who's got the best spot and so on...

Its my favorite way to start the day...,,, what's your's???