Crows at work

The main purpose of this post is the photo above. I went out on my back deck a couple of days ago when the weather was kind of cold, grey and windy with periods of showers and flurries. Behind my fenced yard there's a field, half of which gets mowed and half of which doesn't, my view is of the unmowed half. So right now there's lots of tall dead grass flattened by winter storms.

I saw a crow walking around out there and after a few moments realized it was looking for nesting material. I'd seen it fly by earlier with a hank of grass and now I was watching it harvesting the grass. It seemed very picky, tugging at one grass stem after another looking for whatever qualities it deemed perfect for a nest.

Keyhole view of the field out back, sans crow

I then thought, 'Oh, I should photograph this,' but of course by the time I had gone into the house to get my cell phone and then returned, the bird was done harvesting. Just as I aimed the camera it flew off behind a garage. I quickly aimed the camera at the sky on the other side of the building and caught the bird flying away a beakful of grass.

At this time of year the birds are endlessly entertaining. Sometimes the birds find me entertaining; they hang around the branches surrounding the feeder staring in my window at me.

Cardinals are much shyer and really don't want to know who puts the seeds in the feeder, but the jays and finches are definitely interested.

Chickadees aren't curious because they already know; they consider it their job to whistle at me when the feeder is empty.

I hope I have enough birdseed to last until the parent birds start bringing their offspring around to teach them about bird feeders.