I had started to worry that the birds had moved on and given up on our house. But never fear, the birds are here!

I read all the great advice and ideas from readers. I also visited the Wild Bird Store in Waldorf where they had plenty of ideas about how to entice the birds back to the yard.

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Based on all this great input, here were the steps I took:

– I moved the bird feeders out of the tree (where the squirrels and raccoons could get them and damage my tree anyway) and placed them on a free-standing pole with a squirrel and raccoon baffle. – I added a new hopper feeder and platform feeder on another 4 x 4 post. – I invested in some high quality bird seed mixes. Frankly, these new seed mixes smell so good I could probably serve them at a party and no one would notice. – I added a water wiggler to one of my bird baths. – I added a hanging water tough to the bird feeder station.

It has taken a few days, but I see that this weekend the birds have found the feast and are happily telling their friends. So far, it’s mostly finches, tufted titmice and chickadees. But I did spy a cardinal yesterday out of the corner of my eye. And I hear lots of avian activity when the windows are open.

I still can’t take photos of birds worth poop, so I figure I need a better, long-range lens. It’s a shame to go to all the work of sneaking around the yard with a camera and tripod only to get terrible tiny photos of blurry birds.

I believe I’ll start keeping an official backyard bird list. Perhaps that’ll motivate me to learn more about what birds I am seeing. I am always astounded at the wide variety of birds people can spot in their own yards. Surely I’m missing many that I just haven’t identified.

Ciao!

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