Poppy and CC's Corner: Carolina Birds

The Carolina Wren's daily serenade - Every morning and evening

It was an interesting winter in that we only had a few really cold spells and very little snow or ice. It did plunge below freezing a few times, but never for a long duration. We like to feed our wildlife in the hard times so we added some bird feeders to support the one we already had. In the bitterly cold weather and snow days we opened the Cherylina Critter Café on the deck. The larger birds always scatter seed to the ground where many of the ground feeders enjoy what has been spilled. The squirrels like to climb on the feeders and of course they sneak up on the deck as often as possible. At times there are birds on every station on the feeders and at the same time there may be a dozen more scrounging for seeds on the ground.
The most frequent visitors are chickadees, Carolina wrens, cardinals, house finches, goldfinches, tufted titmouses, nuthatches, brown headed nuthatches, dark-eyed juncos, doves, red bellied woodpeckers and occasionally a brown thrasher. The different species mingle socially and share the bounty that is provided. When the squirrels scurry up the feeder pole and try to figure ways to bring the feeders down, they scare away the birds. I earnestly attempt to run them off so the birds can eat. but when they are eating off the ground, I leave them alone.