I am physically incapable of not feeding the birds. I need to feed. I'm unhappy if I don't have little friends flitting about my backyard enjoying the seed I put out for them. Knowing that I have a bear problem, I decided to try a small window feeder. My thought is that if it's too close to the house and too small to bother with, the bear will not attempt to get it. This is my hope anyway.

So we went to the bird food store and bought a small window feeder for the living room window :


And the sliding glass door on the bead cottage:


Violets in the lawn. Some people think of them as pests, but I think they're pretty.


My lily of the valley is starting to bloom:


And we have confirmed chickadees in the bird cottage. They've been bringing in moss for the last couple of days.


They nest on a bed of moss, which will build up the bottom 3-4 inches of the house, then they line it with soft stuff. I put out some soft roving (wool) that I think will do nicely. I hope they like it.

Yesterday, I took this picture of what I think is a female brown-headed cowbird stalking the nesting chickadees. Cowbirds are like cuckoos and lay their eggs in other birds' nests. I hope it doesn't happen, but if it does there's nothing we can do about it. It's nature. I do hate nature.

Another tree bit the dust. It is a casualty from the first tree which fell, taking off half of the "Y" of this tree. In the strong winds yesterday, the other half of the "Y" fell.

Since we are no longer feeding birds, we bought a wren house and put it up. I hope some bird finds it to be a perfect home.


I think, but I'm not positive, that some chickadees found the house on the bead cottage. I saw a couple fly in and out this morning. I'm going to keep my eye on it and see if they actually are nesting in there.

Our friend the bear came back around Easter. I've lightened the photo, so he's visible. Today we had three deer come visit us. Bobby was quite upset when he spied them. He is now sitting vigil on the porch watching the woods in case they come back. I was able to get these photos. They're not great because I took them through the window.




Our Protector: