YARDLINGS
I almost called this page “The Yardbirds” but that’s a great band from England. Eric Clapton fans, you know who you are. So, I’ll call these busy and amazing creatures ‘The Yardlings”. Some people will yell and howl that I have bird feeders. Please, we’re in Florida – there are more than enough beauty berries and grains in the wild here to feed the whole Northwest and east. On the down times when hurricanes roar in, we all have to adjust – natural foods are gone (pardon the pun) with the wind.
These bird feeders and bird baths are put up for totally selfish purposes: to watch the birds while sipping coffee in 99 degree/100 humidity weather. The grain droppings have created a mini farm in that corner. It’s quite a sight to see!
My sweet babies, the cardinals, come in twos, sixes or eights. The males are a startling red; some are mottled – red and beige – these are juveniles. As I said in other pages, I’m no expert, just a lover of these creatures. For such small birds they have amazingly huge beaks to crack the sunflower seeds. Blue Jays with their opulent feather pattern will screech and create a huge ruckus – all in the name of putting on a show. We get visits from the red-bellied wood pecker and during the winter months, the red-winged blackbirds drop in. Every so often we get invaded by a crowd of noisy but beautiful grackles, so there’s rarely a dull moment.
Did I mention that I’m about to give up on the notion of having a sustainable sunflower patch? The seeds are gone before they get a chance to dry out. Each year the Yardlings disappear for a while (food must be better elsewhere) and then they return en masse. At one point, I counted about 14 cardinals among the 21 mourning doves.