winter birds

female & male house finches

junco also called a snow bird

black capped chickadee and a junco

black capped chickadee 

chickadee splitting open it's sunflower seed

While I was visiting my family in Manassas I was delighted to discover the squirrel proof bird feeder is attracting birds, many we don't normally see. My mother spent a couple weeks with her best pal Mildred in Myrtle Beach last fall and they discovered these special feeders that don't allow the squirrels to eat all the seeds and scare off the birds. Mildred hung her's up right away and they watched it work and were entertained by all the colorful birds and the frustrated squirrels. Mildred sent one to mom for Christmas and I was happy mom had black sunflower seeds to fill it with right away. We hung it in the spot where we used to have a feeder for the gold finches on the dogwood tree. It is on a branch that is easy to reach right in front of the house under the bay window where they are easy to spy upon.

Now there is a routine of birds visiting mom has noticed. They come each morning and late afternoon. All these in the pictures above were there on my last day of visiting and a few others I missed photographing. We bought some smaller seed mix to help attract a few more varieties of birds besides those that like the sunflower seeds. I was sorry I didn't capture a photo of the Downy Woodpecker nor the Red Cardinal but time ran out and the squirrels did hang on one side of the contraption trying to figure out how to get some seeds out which cut down our viewing time. In any case I am very happy there is a bird feeder at home again. We are talking about adding one in the back yard which can be viewed from the dinning room and maybe one in my own window on a tree branch far from my second story window. I would love to have it but I haven't figured out how to hang it and refill it five feet and two stories away from my window sill. Maybe a specially bent coat hanger 'hook' attached to the big branch and a long pole to lift the feeder in and out for refills would do the trick?