Beside the Stream

It can be hard to maintain a birdfeeder here, because the deer will empty it any night you forget to bring it in.   We haven’t had one up in a while, but after Jessie died it seemed like no trouble at all to start feeding the birds again.

The littlest birds take the seed neatly from the feeder.  Bigger birds like this flicker hang on the bottom of the feeder and spill seed on the snow where the magpies (too big for the feeder) can get it.  I started giving the birds table scraps, and trimmings that would go to the compost pile in the summer.  They were eating the two-day-old salad in the fridge that isn’t quite ready to toss.    Everything was fine until the ducks heard about it. 

The entire flock of ducks marched in a single line from their hiding place on the ditch to a clearing in the forest.  I enlarged this photo, and counted forty (!!) wild mallards assembling for an assault on the birdfeeder.  They marched from the forest to the feeder in two groups: one approached from the left, and the other hooked around and came at the feeder from the right.   

It wasn’t a successful visit.  The smaller birds don’t mind sharing, but there are too many ducks for the birdfeeder.  And there were other problems as well.  The feeder is too exposed for mallards.  Although Jessie is gone, they remember her without affection.  From the duck’s point of view, there wasn’t enough food to warrant the risk, and they haven’t returned.   

Except for this girl, who waddles over to dabble at seeds on the snow almost every day.  

(The birds don’t tolerate me at all, so these photos are taken through a glass door.)