I get hours of daily enjoyment from watching a diversity of birds at my feeders. It’s their behavior that fascinates me. So much to observe! How they land (&later take off), how they choose seeds from a bowl by scattering them everywhere or select which peanut is best. Watching parent birds give seeds to their young is always delightful. Sometimes the birds stop to drink water (or take a quick refreshing bath) or stop just long enough to “tell off” another bird saying “this is my suet.” Without reason discernible to me, birds will fly away suddenly out of fear. They good part is knowing they will be back and I’ll get another dose of fasinating bird watching.

We have a pair of fox sparrows (or their offspring) who have lived in our garden for at least 3 years. We’re pretty sure they nest in our arborvitae hedge. The cool thing is that they are so tame around us! Whether they’re perching on the feeder or the lip of my hose urn (they dip in the water left in the bottom; I keep it rinsed out so the water is fresh), they don’t startle or fly away even if we walk right next to them :-) Not very creatively we call them the Brownies – and we love sharing our space with them. I need Birdpedia to find out their lifespan – I hope it is the original pair!