I put up two hanging feeders last weekend, and after a few days the birds found them. Now I have a constant stream of visitors!
I haven’t had much time to watch, so in perhaps 15 minutes total time I have seen at the feeders:
Oregon Junco (many!)
White-crowned Sparrow
Golden-crowned Sparrow (first time I’ve seen this western relative of the White-crown)
Song Sparrow
House Finch
Black-capped Chickadee
Downy Woodpecker
Red-shafted (Northern) Flicker
Starlings (too many – they like my suet – but they are very pretty up close)
Brewer’s Blackbird
Red-winged Blackbird (both blackbirds mixed in with the starlings)
Western Scrub-jay (our version of the Blue Jay – no crest and darker blue)
Not bad for the first week!
Ali and I worked on building seed-starting flats and a little greenhouse today, and I planted posts for a woodpile on the west side of our garage. It’s easy to dig deep holes in our soft, saturated clay soil, but below about 1.5 feet the holes start to fill with water and it becomes a race against inflow. This also makes tamping rather difficult, since liquid muck doesn’t pack. I was surprised to find such a high water table – there must be an impermeable layer below that holds water near the top. I also managed to do some schoolwork, but not as much as I hoped so I will plan on spending more time on that tomorrow.
Our chicks are doing well, though not all are growing at the same rate. We had one “sneezing” chick from the beginning. When it started to appear ill we separated it from the others, and it died a day later. We are hoping that its affliction will not spread to the others, but so far they all seem healthy.
