John gave me this beautiful book for Christmas, written and illustrated by David Sibley, a star of the bird world. It answers frequently asked questions about the birds we see most often. Very entertaining and a nice distraction from the current reality.
It's a large format book and for most species the big, full color illustrations are reproduced life size. Makes for soothing bedtime reading. I'd love to share it with Nova and Maya, although they are growing up so fast, will they still want to snuggle with a book?
Backyard birds have brought much pleasure during this year of isolation, creating new interest in bird watching.
It seems there are more birds than ever in our yard, but maybe we're just home to notice. In November, we bought an enormous box of mixed bird seed at Costco, a real bargain, and I fill the feeder almost daily.
Past winters, I fed sunflower seed to the chickadees and finches, but this mix seems to attract more varieties. Of course they make a big mess with the millet shells, but who cares? And the ground feeders like it. I don't worry as much about them, because people keep their cats inside these days, such a good thing.
I occasionally see one skulking through the yard and give him the evil eye, but nothing like the old days when cats were everywhere, including ours. Cats are the number one killer of birds by a long shot, many millions a year.
Cat lovers argue that it's just natural behavior, which is true, but large numbers of domestic cats are not part of the natural ecosystem. I'd guess there are 10 or 20 cats living on every block in Seattle. I'd like to have a sweet, spoiled cat, but in the summer we have the doors and windows open.
It has rained every day of the new year so far, and today is no exception. Snow piling up by the feet in the mountains, but in the lowlands, just wet.
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