I’m blessed to have ‘peeps’ that do, in fact, peep to me. Sitting at my desk and looking out the window at avian neighbors that stop by to enjoy the all-you-can-peck buffet I keep full just across the patio for our mutual enjoyment. I’ll let them do all of the actual dining, as despite my occasionally nibbling seeds willingly, I don’t often lust after hot pepper infused suet and desiccated mealworms garnishing the grain-and-nut munchies. Shocking, I know.
The birds visiting are mostly permanent and part-time residents of our backing greenbelt, and there are regulars and also unique and unexpected friends making occasional appearances to brighten the day here. We see plenty of the common local Bewick’s wrens and chickadees, softly hooting mourning doves and robins and the like, and every one of them is a delight to see and hear. I love even the ones soaring high enough overhead that they never come close enough to snack at our feeders, too: floating vultures, keening hawks, and a majestically flapping heron or two pass by on occasion. The hummingbirds, mostly Black-chinned and Ruby-throated little charmers, buzz around, chittering and bickering over the deep blue blooms of the blue sage, and make my heart flutter almost as ridiculously quickly as theirs.
But I think perhaps my shallowness is evident in my taste in birds as much as anywhere. I’m especially taken with those that are showy and exaggerated, all the more if they’re full of mischief and play. The cardinals that spend a great deal of time here, one mated pair in particular, are a bit shy and skittish but when they settle onto the feeders they are a show no matter what, between the female’s magnificent airbrushed-looking feathers with their blush of coral and red, and the male’s brash scarlet suit. And more recently, our patio’s been adopted as the dining place of choice for some mighty splashy jays. The blue jays I grew up with in the Northwest were much more often the darker (though also dramatic and gorgeous) Steller’s jays, but what we see here are the more brightly bold black, white and Blue Jays, and they are a grand entertainment indeed.
The jays that visit us are prone to squabbling and banging around in the feeders, eating like winged pigs and strewing seed hulls and detritus all over the place, flying heedlessly around as though they hadn’t a care in the world, and then taking fright at the slightest shadow, suddenly veering up in an explosive launch and leaving the feeder swinging. I can’t often get to my camera in time to freeze their fantastical and pretty foolery for later enjoyment, but I never fail to find them immensely entertaining and wonderful to see. Each moment spent watching them cavort in the sun and shade makes me feel a bit more as though I myself could take wing and burst across the wild blue sky.
Art-Colored Glasses 
You’re well-aware how much I love my birds (and other critters!)…watching them is soothing.
Although if that Blue Jay tried to raid my swallows’ nest again, he’s gonna get smacked with a tennis racket!
I can tell you from long-ago observation that the tennis racket technique works with bats that decide to try dormitory living! 😀
I am not a big fan of birds, but I love bluejays. We have a team of them living in the lodgepole pine in our front yard. They steal the seeds from my garden, but I think that’s a small price to pay. 🙂
I love this, Kathryn! It could almost be an account of the bird activity in my yard. Only this morning I saw a male cardinal landing on a very thin branch of the sessile oak right behind our house (plenty of sturdy branches for perching use), bouncing up and down with the branch, flying off and coming back and bouncing again. Then his mate joined him a few times and did the same thing. Of course, I want to think it was some kind of fun for them … like being on a ride at an amusement park. Perhaps that is ‘humanizing’ them too much. Thanks for sharing your lovely reflection and photos. XO ♥
Half the fun of bird watching (animal watching in general, I suppose), for me, is thinking of them in anthropomorphic terms and interpreting their activities, but of course I love them for their innate beauties too. I have a pair of cardinals that keep me company, as well.
Birds are one of the reasons I have my morning coffee in my yard, though the variety isn’t anything like the one you watch. That’s OK. Just as long there are some birds to watch, how they’re dressed doesn’t really matter much. 🙂
I couldn’t agree more. I’m intrigued and awed by creatures of all sorts, no matter what their appearance. Including humans, come to think of it.
I love “avian neighbors,” Kathryn, and have enjoyed this lovely post…your observations and the photos! Sending love and hugs!
To you, too, my sweet. Maybe the birds are bringing us messages from our friends and loved ones, eh! 😀
We love our feeders over here…one of my favorites is the nuthatch, which can go down a tree head first! We have about 30 different species feeding with us….another interest we share!
My father even invented a subspecies of your friends years ago. One day he and I headed out to our back deck to listen to the birds and enjoy some R&R/father-daughter time, but the minute we got out there we were ‘serenaded’ by a lengthy, noisy and inescapable squabble between a neighboring couple. Dad leaned back with a beatific expression on his face and sighed, ‘Ahhh, the call of the Raving Nuthatch!’ Fortunately every actual nuthatch I’ve been privileged to ‘meet’ since then has been of a much nicer sort! I wish I knew more about birds, but even with my limited ability to recognize varieties or know much about them, I can enjoy them immensely, and I do. 🙂
The blue & red of Jays & Cardinals are truly spectacular. On a slightly other note, it was Wm. Blake who wrote, “A robin redbreast in a cage puts all of heaven in a rage.”
It would indeed be a shame to hold such a wild wonder captive. 🙂