Good morning to everyone on this wonderful Tuesday! It is time for some coffee and a look at what is happening out my window. The temperature actually rose overnight, kind of odd for this time of the year, but nice anyway. So it will be a nice warm fall day which is always enjoyable. Unfortunately there are also showers in the forecast which is going to slow me down on building my new bird feeder poles.

This is something I would like to do while the weather is still mild. Working outside in the cold is not really fun. Not for me at least. But hopefully I can get something accomplished out there today. The blue jays, chickadees and evening grosbeaks have been busy out there this morning. The evening grosbeaks were having trouble getting at the few seeds I put out each morning.

I cannot put out much at a time now because of the bears. I do not want them to find much if they happen to show up. But it does make it harder for the birds, especially the evening grosbeaks. They are scared of the blue jays. When there are enough evening grosbeaks they can take over the feeder and keep the blue jays off. But there are only 6 of them right now, which is not enough.

There were 15 grosbeaks before when I had my feeders up, but now their numbers dropped and they usually only try in the morning, and if they do not get anything, they leave quickly. I have my doubts that they will stay around. The chickadees and nuthatches just kind of slip in and out, so they are not much bothered by the blue jays.

Skitter, Skamper and GPS were around for a little while in the afternoon. The sun was out in the afternoon, so it was really quite a nice day. I guess that is why they came to visit, and get some more peanuts. Skamper mainly wanted sunflower seeds, so he would fill up with those, then take one peanut and head home. He lives farthest away, so it would take him longer to get back for more. Skitter lives closest so he came back quicker than the others, filled up with peanuts amazingly fast and was gone again.

Hmm, the grosbeaks have returned and one of the females decided she had enough of these blue jays and twice fought one off, including chasing one of them right up into the tree. Quite something for a bird barely bigger than half the size of a blue jay. Now she has stood up to another one. He looked kind of confused over this and just sat there, then he stretched over to grab a seed and she chased him away again.

The chickadees and nuthatches are here now as well. None of them were here just a few minutes ago, now they all show up at once. There are only half the number of chickadees now as before when I had the feeders up. Perhaps the others will return. No guarantee that they will, but I am hoping anyway. Well, the coffee is gone and I need to get at some cleaning. It was nice to have you visit with us again today. Have a wonderful day and God bless!

Steve and Muffin.

©2022 Steve McLeod.