Subject: on that common bird thread ...
Date: Sep 9 08:50:51 1996
From: "Susan L. Collicott" - camel at itchy.serv.net



This weekend I had the wonderful sight of a cloud of black-capped
chickadees descending upon my sunflowers. I've been thinking about
cutting off the heads of the flowers and drying them for my own purposes,
but now I'm going to leave them. I didn't think the birds would bother
to eat them, as a (usually full) sunflower feeder is just a few feet away.

The sunflowers are right outside my kitchen window, and I was washing
dishes yesterday, musing on the squabbling house finches on the thistle
feeders, when suddenly 10 to 15 chickadees came swooping in. They would
land on a flower head, grab a seed, hop up to the roof, eat, and repeat.
Must have been half an hour of feeding. No squabbling, just one bird per
flower ... quite a serene feast, compared to the gluttony going on in the
background with the finches! :)

The yard was also invaded by bush tits yesterday, my housemate counted
around 30 of them. They descended upon the suet feeder - you couldn't see
the feeder for a few minutes, there were so many birds on it! Then, as
quickly as they came, they left - in a sort of joyous, bouncing flight.
Bush tits always seem happy, to me, like a big gang of 10-year old kids,
running around the neighborhood. "C'mon! Let's go! Yahoo! Over here!"

Cheers,

Susan Collicott
camel at serv.net
Seattle, WA