New birds

Since I got that birdbath heater, it's been a regular hangout at the old front porch. I've seen two new birds, along with the regulars (two types of juncos, chickadees, jays, English sparrows, goldfinches, purple finches, nuthatches, woodpeckers, flickers, and squirrels). One new bird is the bushtit. They love the suet feeders and sometimes cover them in massive numbers. I found that they are not very widespread, but are quite common mostly in our area. Here's what they look like:

Isn't that a cute little fuzzy thing? My bird book says, "Hyperactive in everything they do, these tousled, fluffy, gregarious birds are constantly on the move. They bounce from one shrubby perch to another, examining everything of interest, filling the neighborhood with charming, bell-like, tinkling calls, and doing it all with panache." It also says that when it gets really cold (like lately) they huddle together in a tight mass to reduce heat loss. I wonder how they decide who will be on the outside.

Another new bird caught my eye on the birdbath: he knocked all the other birds off, regardless of species, and looked a little like an English sparrow but with a fatter body and shorter beak. I sent this picture to my local birders to discover that it is a song sparrow. This bully of the neighborhood will not let anybody else drink water when he's around. He also just seems to like to guard his territory.

When I see the competition that goes on in the bird world, I wonder if we humans will ever outgrow our need to wage wars with each other. Watching these birds does sometimes make me look up and realize that hours have gone by while I was in a reverie, pondering, thinking about things, watching them peck, eat, drink... and fight.

I have laughed and cried with my blogging buddies this morning. Some are having a hard time, some cause me to snort coffee up my sinuses, and some are showing me pictures of birds, squirrels, and other wildlife that congregate within their camera sites. Some are celebrating the season and sharing pictures. Again, and I hope you don't get tired of hearing this, I am grateful for the wide world that is funneled through my computer screen into my brain, which then widens again into ideas and worlds of possibilities.

:-)