There haven’t been any cats outside this week. I haven’t seen any since we got home last Sunday. The birds, on the other hand, are showing up in hungry droves.
I hang a bird feeder at our back door full of cat food for the birds. In normal times that will feed them for about 2 weeks. I filled it before we left town last week. When we returned 4 days later it was almost empty. I refilled it on Monday and it is now empty again.
The main reason for the increase is the youngsters are leaving the nests. There are newly fledged Starlings and Blue Jays visiting the plate of food I have on the fence.
There are 3 young starlings that are providing me with lots of entertainment. They first showed up and landed on the fence. Then whenever an adult bird would land on the plate and grab some food the little ones would open their mouths wide and trill—expecting to be fed. Sometimes they would get fed some times not.
They even jumped into the plate and snuggled down in it as if it were their nest. They’d look at the food and then wait for someone to come feed them. Eventually they caught on and began to eat. Now it’s a mixture of them feeding themselves while still begging on any adult that arrives. I know when they are out there because they make quite a racket.
Using the plate as a nest and feeding itself.
Successful begging.
A noisy adult.
A juvenile jay.
We came home by way of Cedar Key last weekend. Many years ago I took a picture of a shack at the end of a pier that looked as if it would collapse any moment, yet it had a electrical line out to it and a TV antenna on the roof. Well, it is still standing (barely) and definitely not occupied.
Then
Now.
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