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The chickadee is probably the first bird we
spotted in our yard. We had one at the small cottage house we had before this one with no
backyard what so ever but we had a chickadee. He had a permanently broken leg that sort of
stuck out to the side but he sure could get around on the ground just fine. We called him
Twit Bird. No particular reason, it just popped into my head. I really hated leaving him
behind. We had wild bird seed we purchased from a grocery store at the time with one small
terracotta feeder. As we started to get more birds we got larger feeder and better quality seed. We have three
feeders now. I plan to put more up this year plus some birdhouses if I can ever get
my husband
into the garage long enough to turn out some. I love birdhouses and have several decorative ones indoors but they don't
do my birds much good.
The chickadee is a
very social little bird and they don't seem to fear humans that much. I figure they must
have a lot of faith in their being precocious enough to protect them. Around here they
have to get to the feeders when the house finches and gold finches are off doing something
else. They love the black oiled sunflower seeds and adore peanut butter pinecones. I make
a mixture with chopped raisins, chunky peanut butter, corn meal and wild bird seed. The
flickers like it too so I have to have a stout string and a large cone. Picture a cow
trying to stand on an 8 X 10 piece of paper and you can get the picture of the first time
a flicker landed on the small cone I had. We have one feeder very near the front door and
the chickadees rarely bat an eye when you open the door.
We get the blackcapped mostly but do see the
chestnut backed occasionally. They like to splash in the birdbath then hop up on the fence
to preen and dry their feathers. The chickadees stay the year round and are eager feeders
during the few snow storms we have here in Western Washington. I hadn't seen
a Chestnut Backed for a couple years but I saw one this year, June 2002. I
am glad to have them back.
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