Bird watching

I've enjoyed bird watching for some time. Even when we lived in town, I had a little feeder in the back yard. We didn't have near the variety of birds that we now have, though. So outside my kitchen window we have a couple feeders. As we sit at the table to eat or if I'm at the sink doing dishes, I can gaze out my window and enjoy their busy munching and fluttering around.

I used to get the wild bird seed mix, but found out most of it goes to waste, because there's so much of it they don't eat. Now I buy only black oil sunflower seeds. They eat all of it and we still get a wide variety of birds visiting. I don't know all the names of the visiting birds, but there's a few I recognize. In the winter we mostly have the nuthatches, chickadees, and Stellar Jays. Spring has brought Mourning doves, Evening Grosbeaks, Goldfinches, Crossbills, Juncos, Pine Siskins, probably sparrows, and finches. Those I've yet to figure out. I think I had a purple finch and a house finch today, but I still haven't been able to tell those two and the Cassin's finch apart!

In previous summers when I would water the garden, the birds would come bathe in the puddles that formed or shower under the spray of water coming from my hose. This year I decided to add a bird bath to the yard. Now they always have a place to come for a drink (although, I think they still like the dog dish by the faucet) or a bath if need be. And I have another place to watch them and be entertained. Austin picked out the bath with the two bird statutes on it. Maybe that makes the birds more confident to come try it out; because there's already "somebody" there. :)

"All things bright and beautiful, All creatures great and small, All things wise and wonderful, The Lord God made them all.
Each little flower that opens, each little bird that sings, He made their glowing colors, He made their tiny wings."
And I'm so glad He did!