New Hobby

I have begun a new hobby--bird watching. I thought Mackay would love to see birds on our balcony, and thought a bird feeder would be a fun little project to do together. I started out buying a hummingbird feeder--it brought back childhood memories. I remember spending time at my Grandma Harvey's house, and in the morning while we were eating breakfast, we could look out the front window. She would have a hummingbird feeder, and we would watch the little hummingbirds come and eat. I remember eating my cereal (if we were lucky it was cold cereal, but most often cream of wheat), and my grandma would be at the stove making the hummingbird's food of red dyed sugar water. For some strange reason, that is a great memory in my mind. So I wanted to share that experience with Mackay. Then I realized that it might take a while to get hummingbirds to find our feeder, since we have no flowers around us. So I bought the traditional bird feeder. It worked the first day! I became obsessed. I didn't want to leave the living room because of the fear that I would miss the birds. The first time they came, (pictured below), I ran and got my camera, took a few pictures, and then ran and got Mackay up from her nap so that we could watch them together. I also called Nate to tell him the good news, but he didn't answer--I'm sure he loved the breathless message that he received later.

So now it has become an obsession of watching the birds, studying their bodies, and then trying to find out their name on the internet. I still can't decide what these birds below are called, but I suspect that they are male and female of the same kind.
These other pictures are just ones that I have found off the internet, but they are examples of what we have had grace our presence on our balcony.

Mourning dove. I was so excited that we had a dove, until I read that they are of the pigeon family. That takes all of the majesty out of the word "dove" for me.
Blue Jay. Oh, what a treat! This bird is so beautiful in the branches outside our window. Yesterday I was watching one eyeing our food, and then saw him swoop down to the ground. Oh man! I had swept the bird seed off the porch earlier in the day (birds are very messy eaters), so that is where the blue jays and male cardinals were! This is Mackay's favorite bird, probably because she can say the name perfectly. She gets pretty messed up on the word "cardinal."

I was excited to see this bird, and even more excited when I found out that it was a female cardinal. They have a more common, brown looking body to keep them camouflaged while they are nesting. She came and ate from our bird feeder yesterday. Yesterday was a great day.
And ta-dah! My favorite. (Actually, I really can't decide between the male cardinal and the blue jay). Mr. Cardinal sat up in the trees a lot of yesterday, but never coming to ear our food. This morning, while Mackay and I were playing in her room, I heard a bird, came out to the living room, and saw this brilliant red bird eating our seed! For some reason, this past time is so exhilarating. I thought it was kind of boring when I heard of old men claiming this as their hobby--but I understand! I'm even thinking about buying my own little bird book so that I don't have to run to the computer. I would be able to flip through the pages while looking at the bird!

I think I've gotten a little carried away through this post, but recommend to EVERYONE that they get a bird feeder. Especially if you have kids. Sure, cute nephew William can say bifurcated, but wouldn't it be cute if he could say, Cardinalis cardinalis? (The scientific name for cardinal.)