Reasons To Stay

“Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known.” ~ Carl Sagan

Time’s short now, from here to the end of the year. Everyone is working hard to meet deadlines before the winter break; we are all not liking school so much now.

And, Oh! do we need that break.

But watching birds from the inside is not so hard. In fact, the littlest ones are easiest on the eyes. Now that we’ve put feeders back out, the winter hummers are starting to filter in and have staked out their favorite feeder stations on the porch.

We have two species of hummingbirds now, visiting several times throughout the day:

Black-chinned Hummingbird
A first for our home!

Rufous Hummingbird

It’s still early for the winter season, but who knows who else will show? Mr. Charky (the Dark-eyed Junco in the opener) is not even supposed to be here, this far south. He likes it so much here, in fact, he brought a dozen of his friends with him.

Dark-eyed Junco

Whatever you do, don’t clean up your yard. The birds like things quite chaotic and weed-y, not all manicured and spotless. Wait until February for your major clean-up; there’s no need to compete with your neighbors when the growing season comes to a grinding halt. The birds will love you for it.

Nectar feeders aren’t just for the migrating hoards of hummers in spring and fall. Mix up a batch of sugar water (4:1 water to sugar ratio, boiled 5 minutes, cooled) and hang feeders out near windows where you can watch from the comfort of the indoors (when it gets cold). Clean the bird bath. Hang thistle socks and fill finch feeders with sunflower seed, cages with suet.

Give them reasons to stay — and they will.

Daddy Cardinal Takes a Dip

♥

Forgive our absence. Will be back just as soon as we
break for the holidays!