Thursday, May 29, 2008

It's Looking and Sounding Like a Bird Refuge!

Dean has been feeding the birds and they seem to like it A LOT! This is right off the deck in the back of the house. The finches like the black sunflower seed better than the niger thistle, though........And do they ever sing for us. This little guy (girl?) went on for the longest time.
This one and it's mate were chasing each other along the fence - I tried to get both of them, but shooting out of Dean's office window has its limitations..........A while back, I made a bunch of bluebird houses - with Dean's help, of course. We saw bluebirds last year, but none so far this year. The bluebirds like small holes, according to what I've read - 1 1/4" diameter. Dean enlarged the holes on some of the houses, but not this one. This bird kept trying and trying to get its chubby little body through that small hole
And finally managed to get in. I was worried that the mommy bird wouldn't be able to go in and out very easily, so Dean went down and enlarged the hole on this one, too. The birds came back to the house, so they weren't too bothered by the activity.
This house is just outside Dean's "office" (computer room.....) and I've been taking pictures out the window. This looks like the bird is on its back? Not sure - interesting position anyway
Here is the pair - one on top of their house, one putting grasses inside. I'm sure that the one on top is telling the other one how to put the grass in correctly
It's been raining the past few days and I'm liking it. We got .30 in the last day - we need it. Dean contributes to a program that documents rain in micro climates. Every morning, he reads the amount and enters it into a website database along with general comments about the weather. He is enjoying it and I like knowing the weather history. The newspapers and television weather generally report for Redmond or Bend, but our information out here is usually quite different. We are generally warmer in the winter and get less rain/snow. Right now, Bend has just over 2" of rain for the calendar year - normal for this time is over 5".

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Hi you'all. Have heard nothing but good comments on your sermon! Wish we could have been there. hope this gets to you. Gordy/Faye