"Blackbird"

 It took a pandemic for me to put up a bird feeder in my front yard. My dad had given me a feeder back in the 1980s, but I became discouraged by the squirrels and took it down. Then In 2020, I was stuck at home so in October I bought a new bird feeder. It has brought me lots of pleasure. But, those damn squirrels still come around!

Here is a small sampling of the bird visits in 2024. A great photo opportunity also, of course I start with a Blackbird, or is it a grackle, or....

Regular visitors include the Blue Jays. For a while, I was also putting out peanuts to keep the squirrels busy. I found out that the Blue Jays were big fans of the peanuts in a shell.

This Blue Jay wanted to show me that his wings were blue.

Just recently I had these visitors. They are Blue Crowned Parakeets, also known as Conures. They are wild but normally are pets. The Brevard Zoo has had them. We also have in Melbourne, for over 40 years, a flock of Monk Parakeets. They have visited my bird feeder in the past.

The Monks are much more vocal, but these guys are so cute...

In January, I had a pair of painted buntings. This is the male...

One of my favorite visitors are a pair of Northern Cardinals. It was a rainy day for this visit but they were active around the feeder. The male showed off his new hairdo...

The female was on the ground and the male joined her...

Then he was back on the feeder.

The female decided to hang out on my bougainvillea. What was really cute is that the male would bring her seeds from the feeder. He would put them in her beak. I tried to get a photo but it happened quickly.

I have mentioned the squirrels. Last summer I took the feeders down, I may do it again this year. In the summer, my bird visitors are mostly local birds. I spend quite a bit of my beer money for the birdseed. That is probably good in many different ways.

In an earlier photo, there was a board on the ground. I put this down because the mourning doves cannot land on the birdfeeder. They grab the ground clutter.

For years, there has been a family of red-bellied woodpeckers in my neighborhood. They love my birdfeeder and live in the trees of my neighbor. Sometimes when I am getting the morning paper, I can here them pecking at wood. This includes a utility pole in my yard.

The house finch are regulars every year at my birdfeeder. The male has red and the female looks like a sparrow.

The male house finch.

Although not a user of the bird feeder, the juvenile white ibis like to eat seeds near the board. Most of the family (flock) are eating bugs in my yard (that I do not spray.)

Note

"Blackbird" is a song by the English rock band the Beatles from their 1968 double album The Beatles (also known as "the White Album"). It was written by Paul McCartney and credited to Lennon–McCartney, and performed as a solo piece by McCartney. When discussing the song, McCartney has said that the lyrics were inspired by hearing the call of a blackbird in Rishikesh, India, and by the civil rights movement in the Southern United States.

It is one of my favorites songs from the White Album. A friend of mine in High School use to play it on the piano, which I loved. Also, I had at friend at UVM who played it on guitar, which I loved. Just like my bird feeder, the song contains and creates wonderful memories.