I've gotten back into an old habit in recent days of putting out food for the wild birds who live or work (?) near my office window. I'm on the ground floor and have for some time been throwing peanuts out the window to chipmunks, squirrels, blue jays and other birds, some not much bigger (to me) than the period on the end of this sentence.
I've marvelled at how the tufted titmouse (that's what Wikipedia says they are. I've tried channeling John James Audobon and all I've got to show for it is a handful of feathers and bird poop on the car windshield) peck at the shells of peanuts practically as big as they are until they have created a hole they can slide their beaks into and lift the nut, or legume as they are called in South Beach and elsewhere, and fly away.
Months ago I had a mesh cage of sorts you could put suet blocks and bird seed dissolved in suet blocks into and suspend it by suction cups on the window to feed just the birds (who will battle ferociously with the squirrels and chipmunks for the peanuts). A tip (from me to you) on those feeders: when you attach them to the window, do it to the outside of the window, otherwise the birds spend all day flying into the pane of glass and when you lean back in your chair at your desk, you knock the feeder onto the floor by your filing cabinet.
Seriously. I stopped using the feeder because the little birds were getting out hustled and out muscled by huge birds, grackles, it says right there, but the ones I was watching looked to be the size of intercontinental bombers. And they stayed until everything was gone, to include it seemed, the paint on the feeder. Since I couldn't figure out how to help the little birds and punish the big, uncaring ones (I did develop a better appreciation for the Lord's challenges. Let me tell you, if the meek inherit the earth the way the sparrows and tufted titmouse(s) didn't get seed or suet, the meek better have a Plan B), I took the feeder down and put it away.
It wasn't that big a deal for me or the birds. It was summer and there was lots of whatever birds eat for them to eat (I guess. I didn't see any with a tin cup at the building's exits, and signs that read 'will chirp for worms' though there were a couple of signs, come to think of it, but the writing well, the writing was---wait for it--basically chckenscratch), but now with the weather getting wintry I put the feeder back out and now I have to reprogram these guys. I guess that's why we say they have 'bird brains'. They've spent months pacing the ground beyond my windows checking shells for those delicious peanuty insides, and so far, almost a full week into this, they haven't noticed the feeder.
All they do is look down instead of up. I suspect hunger will improve their visual acuity very shortly. I'll keep you posted. "For unless they see the sky; But they can't, and that is why--They know not if it's dark outside or light."
-bill kenny
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