See You in September

It is always with mixed feelings of sadness and relief that I take the seed feeders inside for the summer.

Carolina wren at feeder, from another year.
(Margo D. Beller)

The signs were there. Few of the birds I like - chickadees, titmice, white-breasted nuthatch - were visiting but there were plenty of birds I don't like:  A grackle hogging the house feeder. A jay swooping in again and again, swatting away any bird, including a big cardinal, that dared come to the feeder between swoops. A family of house finches - a brood already? - swarming the caged tube feeder, eating more than half the seeds in a day.

With the feeders inside for the next few months the downys and redbellied woodpeckers will have to work a bit harder prying bugs from tree bark as they walk along the side of a tree trunk. The cardinal pair that would be sitting on the feeder pole waiting for me to bring out the feeders in the morning will have to spend more time searching the trees and the grass for insects to feed themselves and their young.

They will do alright without me.

Hanging baskets 2018 (Margo D. Beller)

To give myself something to look at from my corner porch chair, I've hung two plants that usually spend the summer sitting on the sunny window ledge in my front room. This is an experiment to see if these plants can do well outside where they'll be rained on, baked in the sun and visited by insects. Who knows, the pink geranium might even draw a curious hummingbird.

There is one feeder still outside. The hummingbird feeder is out, hanging above the pink flowers of the perennial geranium and the coral bells, and I am hoping a hummer or two come by this year. The only other bird that concerns me now is this year's house wren, which has been singing continually to protect his territory. When the bird first claimed the box there was a second one, presumably a female that accepted the offered lodging. But lately I've only seen the one wren, singing from a tree, the feeder pole, on top of the nest box.

Apples in the making, 2018 (Margo D. Beller)

If there is a brood this year I should be able to hear it soon enough and I hope all will have fledged before the apples need to be knocked off the tree for me to use before the squirrels can ruin them. Based on all the flowers this year we'll be having another bumper crop.

So with apples and summer's heat and humidity on the horizon, it is a relief to not have to worry about taking the feeders in each night to avoid any bear, or put them out early each morning when my back is stiff. I do have water out for the birds and that is really all they need from me as long as there are insects to provide the protein. They won't need the fat from my sunflower seeds until it starts to get cooler and the days grow shorter after Labor Day.

And that is when the feeders will go back out. I'll miss the cardinals but I've no doubt they'll be back again.