I've been feeding the birds in our back garden. Winter time is particularly tough for those winged creatures. After some research, the winner of the prize for most common visitor to the bird table is: (drum roll, please) - the Oregon junco - a dark hooded bird with white breast, brown wings and a distinctive white flash of colour in the tail that you see when it flies away. The junco comes each day, sometimes just appears just after I open the curtains in the morning. Of course, who the heck knows, it could have been chomping down on the seed from the feeder for hours. A more aggressive visitor is a streaked sparrow - I think it is a Vesper sparrow. It is slightly bigger than the junco with a brown and white streaked breast, quite a handsome bird. There is always enough food on the bird table, but this puppy always shoos away the junco and chases them from their perch in the nearby Japanese maple.
There are also some very small birds I have identified yet - the size of wrens but much longer tails, and they come to the garden in packs of a dozen at least, sometimes twenty or thirty, descending and picking up grubs or hanging on the suet feeder. Equally as suddenly they all take off, as if spooked by something. Strange thing is that they are tame as all get out, as I was walking past them yesterday and must have been two feet away. There they were perching on the clothes line chattering to me.
Yesterday there was a major scare for them, as I caught sight of a hawk in the garden, trying to catch one of them. That is an unusual sight, at least in the back garden. So I am putting out feed, attracting the birds and no doubt rodents, and that in turn is drawing their predators. Life is harsh, but it is vibrant. I love seeing their lively and engaging activity up close.
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