The Popular Bird Feeder

A couple of weeks ago I put up our bird feeder in it's regular spot on our back porch but did not put any seed in it at the time. Today I finally filled it up with some fresh seed I just purchased yesterday.

At first I went out on the back porch to move Becky's herb plants to the sunroom. It was cold and quiet in the backyard and between sleet/rain showers. It was going to get more of that wintry mix later in the day. A little earlier I had gone into the basement and filled my seed container from the new bag and I had it with me on the porch. After finishing up with the herbs plants I started putting seed into the bird feeder.

I immediately noticed a sudden increase in the bird activity around me. I could hear loud chirping coming from the nearby trees and then there were several birds on the shed roof next to me. It was getting louder by the minute as I filled up that feeder.

I went in the house and for the next hour or so there was a steady stream of birds coming to the feeder... mostly chickadees, finches, wrens, juncos and sparrows. Then by later in the afternoon there were huge flocks of sparrows swarming the feeder along with mourning doves, cardinals and blue jays. Now the jays, doves and cardinals cannot fit into the feeder to get seed but they still came around to get the droppings. It was really crazy to see all of the activity. Half the seed was gone from the feeder by dusk. I guessed they missed us feeding them but we only do it in the winter or when the weather gets freezing.