Friday, December 28, 2007

All Creatures Great and Small

My parents have been frustrated lately because all their birds seem to have disappeared over the past few weeks. All summer and fall, the yard was teeming with all kinds of birds. Suddenly, there was not a bird to be seen. They have tried and tried to figure out what's happened, but so far have not found the answer.

I spent the past four days with them and only on the last day did I see any birds at the feeders and in the trees. The second picture here shows about 13 goldfinches in a birch tree. A few minutes later, about twice as many were there. And later, there were about a dozen mourning doves feeding on the ground. An improvement, but not the variety they are used to.

Meanwhile, the family cats have been enjoying all the attention they've been getting from visitors during the holiday. They are, in order, my parents' Maine Coon cat "The Colonel" Joshua Chamberlain, my sister's two Rag Doll cats "Misty" and "Remy," and my two cats "May" and "Teddy."

The last picture is one I took out my car window as I was leaving the grocery store this afternoon. I saw this hawk sitting at the top of a tree surveying the traffic below. I can't imagine he would find anything tasty forf his lunch in such an environment, but it was a treat for these eyes =)

2 comments:

Ruth said...

Nice to see those bare tree branches adorned with birds...even the hawk. The cats look quite content! I have never had a cat for a pet coming from family that has only had dogs.

Patty said...

Just this morning, before getting out of bed, I was thinking about how there have been almost no birds at my feeders. Last winter I could sit for hours and see so many, now there are none. Just a couple chickadees once in a while. Our cats don't hang out on the side of the house with the feeders, the cats like the barns for all the rich mouse hunting available to them.
The Cardinals are not around, neither are the finches. Strange