Project FeederWatch – Another Season
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We started our second season recording observations of birds at our home feeders with Project FeederWatch. Our set up is the same as last year. We have two old rocker recliners in our basement that have a clear view of our feeders on the other side of the patio from our window that is under the deck.
The Project FeederWatch season started on November 1 and there was still a lot of greenery. I cut back the Japanese Barberry (really want to take it out completely) but otherwise there is more vegetation than last year with the cedars, holly, and violets growing over the past year. The feeder nestled in the holly and cedars is a bit harder to reach. There is a brush pile in another part of the patio (in the lower left of the picture) that is my holding area for twigs I will burn in the chimenea eventually. The birds like that area too.
New this year is clump of vegetation at the edge of the patio between the two feeders: Pokeweed that seems to come up everywhere in our yard and grasses that had sprouted from birdseed from the feeders above. In general, the birds seem to like the extra vegetation and they eat the seeds from both plants occasionally.
The window and the low light make photography more for id than art. Even at the being of the season we had dark-eyed junco (a winter bird for us), downy woodpeckers, and northern cardinals, tufted titmice, and at least 3 kinds of sparrows…to name few.
Of course we have squirrels that come through too. They sit on the deck railing and gaze longingly at the feeders – which have proved to be mostly squirrel-proof!
