The Tuesday after we returned, my husband and I were sitting in the kitchen, savoring the peace and quiet (the kids had gone back to school,) when there came this tapping at the kitchen window. taptaptap.
Just like that. Not really loud, but not exactly quiet. Then it came again,
taptaptap.
I got up and looked, and saw a cardinal on the bird feeder that straddles our property with the one next door. Now, mind you, in the nearly six years we've lived here, that bird feeder has not been filled. I just never really thought about filling it. I like to watch the birds - cardinals have always been one of my favorite birds. But I just paid very little attention to the feeder. Until...
taptaptap.
The bird started getting persistent. So I thought I'd be nice and go out and get birdseed and the cardinal would stop taptaptap-ing on the window. I fill the hopper (didn't even know it was a hopper until I looked at the back of the birdseed bag) and thought, "Okay. No more tapping."
Dear God, was I wrong.
I don't know if the bird thought my plants (that had been there for a while) were a nest and I was a rival bird, or what, but that crazy bird kept tapping, almost nonstop, for days.
taptaptap.taptaptap.taptaptap.taptaptap.taptaptap.taptaptap.taptaptap.taptaptap.taptaptap.
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| My badass cardinal |
AUGH!
I was afraid the damn thing would kill itself on the glass. A Facebook friend suggested taping pictures of owls to the windows, so I went tearing through the Girl's collection of Ranger Rick magazines, searching in vain for pictures of owls.
No owls. But apparently cardinals are terrified of walruses. Yes, I taped a picture of a walrus to the outside of the window.
Problem solved.
She still taps on the window once every morning and I refill the bird feeder every week, so I like to think she's just saying good morning, or thank you. (She and her husband are at this feeder all the time and I've been trying to get a picture of them together, because they feed each other.)
Since I've been filling the feeder, we've had all sorts of birds hanging around it. Some I've managed to get pictures of, like the rose-breasted woodpecker...
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| Friends tell me this is a rose-breasted woodpecker |
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| He had a buddy, but we haven't seen her in a while |
And a gorgeous red-winged blackbird that I haven't been able to catch on film. We also get various sparrows, blackbirds, blue jays.
Oh, and one very industrious squirrel (we call him Stan) who is determined to figure out how to get to the food without shutting the hopper or falling off the feeder. He hasn't gotten it yet, and he's almost as much fun to watch as the birds...
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| Resting. And plotting |
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| More resting. More plotting. |
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| Maybe this will work |
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| ITCHY! (sorry about the pink. It's the reflection of my iPhone case) |
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| He's nothing if not determined. |
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