Hello, tweets.

I'm continually impressed by the adaptability of birds (and other
animals, of course).

I wrote a while ago about the Bewick's Wren(s) making the jump in my
yard from suet to shelled sunflower pieces.

This morning I watched an immature or female Townsend's Warbler do
the same, I occasionally see one feeding on the suet, probably
because I'm looking out the window only a tiny percentage of the day,
but just now one came and ate some suet, then went to the tube feeder
and grabbed a sunflower piece and flew away. This is the first time
I've seen a warbler eat a bit of plant material and thus move into
the "omnivore" category. I suppose if we put nothing but shelled and
unshelled sunflower seeds out in our feeders, we would be feeding
most of the birds in the neighborhood.

As a postscript, while I was writing this, another imm or female
Townsend's came to the suet. By the way it approached it and fed on
it, I can't help wondering if it was a different bird. It's fun to
watch them look around and find the tiny pieces of suet adhering to
all parts of the feeder, scraped off when we push the suet into its
container. I think "how can they find those tiny bits?", then I think
of a room with a block of chocolate in the middle of it larger than I
am, and lots and lots of individual chocolates on shelves all over
the room. I'd have no trouble finding them and might consider that
easier than biting pieces off the big block. I'd just have to accept
that they were all exactly the same kind of chocolate. No mints, no
chocolate-covered cherries, no almonds. Perhaps it is thoughts like
that that prompt us to buy different "flavors" of suet to place in
our feeders. Suet is marketed just like everything else in our
society, and I suspect that, unlike people, the birds couldn't care
less if we put out 10 varieties of it!

Dennis Paulson
1724 NE 98 St.
Seattle, WA 98115
206-528-1382


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