Tuesday, April 1, 2008

With Mallards Toward Some

My husband, the tree hugger, feeds the birds. Finches, blue jays, hummingbirds, cardinals, mourning doves, woodpeckers, sparrows, wrens, tufted titmice, chickadees, grackles, red-winged blackbirds, and starlings. He wishes the latter three would stay away because he regards them as flying pigs, but what can he do?

He doesn't like squirrels helping themselves to heaps of sunflower seed, but squirrels will be squirrels.

He doesn't like neighborhood cats stalking "his" birds, but cats will be cats.

He doesn't like hawks scoping out the songbirds from a nearby tree, but hawks will be hawks.

He's played host to the occasional raccoon, possum, and fox.

This morning, we had a pair of newcomers. Mr. and Mrs. Mallard were out there shoveling in--nay, vacuuming up--seeds by the heaping cupful with voracious little bills. I was surprised to see a bright flash of blue on Mrs. Mallard's dull brown wings. I called the tree hugger at work with the news.

6 comments:

  1. Your tree hugging husband and I have a lot in common. I love feeding the wild birds and could stand for hours watching them.
    And yes, these are 'my' birds too!
    Take care
    Tory

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  2. Oh yeah, I forgot to tell you about the time when we were at our cottage that I woke my Hubby up at 6:30am to see a kingfisher! Good thing he loves me!!

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  3. Tory,

    Blogspot lost my comment, so I am going to your blog to retype it. GRRRRRRRRR.

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  4. I think people like birds until they have to live with them. Ours never shut up....EVER! Thanks for visiting my blog.

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  5. Holly, I know what you mean about never shutting up. My daughter and son-in-law went to the Virgin Islands on their honeymoon. They were outdoors when they phoned us. I never heard such shreiking and cackling! Some kinda local bird. We could hardly hear a thing our daughter was saying.

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  6. You said on my blog you left me a comment on your thoughts today, but i can't seem to find it.

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