Now that the weather has turned a bit colder, I guess it is safe to feed the birds again. I think.
The last few years there have been a couple reasons we had to stop feeding birds, particularly in warmer weather. One being to stop the spread of avian flu, which seems to be still around. And the other was to prevent the spread of a parasite, the name of which I can never pronounce but it chokes birds and can be spread where they gather. As does avian flu.
The colder weather tends keep the parasites under control. But avian flu is still around. Although I haven’t seen many recent requests for people not to feed wild birds unless they also have domestic birds.
So I put out a little seed last weekend, just to see what might be hanging out in the trees. Within a minute I had two chickadees, a red breasted nuthatch and a white breasted nuthatch swooping down to grab a snack. A few minutes after that, there were well over a dozen birds harassing a squirrel that was attempting to take over the feeder. It might have been a while since I put out any bird seed, but it’s nice to know some things never change.
But it was nice to see the little birds gathering around, at least the ones that are still with us. There is probably lots of natural food around for them at this time of year. But I still like to see them close.
