Old Reliable

I was sitting on my back porch today, watching the continued rain, thinking of how I tend to keep things around for a long time as long as they are in working order. My car is 12 years old. One of my winter hats I've had since I was 10 years old. I can't remember how long ago I bought some of the shirts or coats in my closets. (Some would say I keep MH around for the same reason.)

House feeder with Velcro and duct tape, Feb. 25, 2018 (Margo D. Beller)

Then there is this house feeder.

This simple wood feeder has been attracting birds of all sizes since we received it as a housewarming present well over a decade ago. The first bird it attracted, according to my records, was a "woodpecker," likely a downy but I didn't know its name at the time. The second bird was a tufted titmouse, I learned from my field guide, and using my binoculars I could see the bit of red under its wings and the texture of its feathers.

Seeing these birds prompted me to start studying them in my yard and in the field. After a decade of running around watching and listening I think of myself as an intermediate birder, at least when it comes to the birds I see regularly in my part of New Jersey.

House feeder in better days, with female purple finch (Margo D. Beller)

Like everything else I have kept for many, many years there is fraying around the edges, signs of weathering and a weakening of bonds. I've added other feeders to my collection over the years but I use this one because it does what I want, attract birds. Unfortunately, not all the birds are those I want to attract and this is the only feeder I use that has no protection from squirrels, which I also learned fairly quickly. That is when I put in a feeder pole and a baffle to keep the critters out.

But over time, after many winters in rain, snow and wind, the string has frayed and is now reinforced with Velcro strips and more twine so it doesn't break under the weight of sunflower seeds or the birds that come in ones and twos or more to eat it.

Feeder with curious black-capped chickadee (Margo D. Beller)

Bears have attacked this feeder but have never been able to destroy it, although they have come close. The last such attack, when the bear took down the cast-iron pole's arm as it tried to rip the feeder off, put a hairline crack in the lid. That didn't impede my being able to refill the feeder -- until the freezing rain came a few weeks ago. I tried to open the lid and half of it came off in my hand. But that is why duct tape was invented. The lid is attached again and the feeder can continue to be used.

Those are easy fixes. Fixing the car when parts break down is not so easy and can be expensive. Fixing me when parts broke down over the last couple of years, forcing me to see doctors and go to the hospital, were even harder and more expensive. Just as I do what I can to keep this feeder in one piece - such as taking it in at night when the bears are out of hibernation, as they will be soon - I do what I can to keep MH and me in working order.

But I know we are not young, indestructible or immortal, and that's a hard thing for me to accept. Still, like my feeder we go on, sometimes with duct tape.