build nests in my gutters and it attracts rodents. A chipmunk cost me $500, I had to replace the wooden walk-in door in my basement
with a steel door. Then last Christmas my Neice gave me a video bird feeder, so I am feeding birds again.

I find it a lot of fun to play around with, both at home and on trips.

when i was a kid mom , i , my aunt and uncle went to an national wildlife federation conference at asillimar ca. they needed to have someone imitate the bird calls , i stepped up to the plate .

I remember when we first saw a Great Blue Heron, and I was about five years old and walking on the beach with him

nesting Painted Buntings right outside my window. I had never seen one before and they are something to see. My "vulture tree" across the pond got smashed in a storm years ago and they are much less frequent after all that has come after that. (I wish I could figure out how to post pictures, they were a sight all sitting up there) The Ospreys still used it until last year but another storm altered the tree again. They still come then go but fewer than before. Then it became the eagle tree much to my surprise. We have quite a lot of Bald Eagles from time to time, no more than 4 or 5 at a sitting in that tree, mostly one or two at a time. They come and go. All the other birds around here show up now and again and some stay. Of all the birds that I always wanted to see, I hear them, my neighbors complain about them and my farm has housed them but all these years I have never seen a Pileated Woodpecker.

A couple of months ago my ancient bird book fell out of my hands and became and huge, flying tower of pages. I guess the binding broke. I cried and put it together haphazardly so I could maybe get it rebound or something. It had 40-50 years of observation in it and my husband put it in the trash when I was not here and it is gone. One more thing thrown into the garbage because after all those years dragging it along everywhere we went he did not know what it was (?).

Everything has an ending so now I just look out of the big front windows I had put there specially for watching the wildlife out here. I hope it keeps growing, the wildlife, lol. Fewer will make it harder maybe when you are out looking for them but if we blow this off I would have little hope of their long term survival. *I have not read the article yet, sorry I usually do it the right way but needed to release a but of upset over my book and fill it with nice observations.

i live in a second story apartmment with 2 huge windows .( living room and bedroom) that overlook a creek.lots of trees. i see all kinds of wildlife thru those windows . i " talk" to my ravrn friends and others when the window is open.

I have been known to caw a few times, lol. I do have neighbors but they are farmland neighbors...not too close but there. I look across the road at longhorn babies right now.

I love your conversing with the ravens. Life can still be good now when you have friends like this!

then i heard this tweet over head and it was the red tail and its friend . we tweeted back and fourth wor quite a while .

We used to have loads of birds that stayed pretty low, quail and turkey just all kinds of birds. It was fun to listen to them, especially when they were close. All gone from here now.

east of the house where the feeder hangs. I have had many types of feeders, but I have settled on suet blocks.
The sunflower seeds brought vermin and that included raccoons with their little ones.. The ravens are very creative because their feet cannot hold onto the metal screen box. Mostly I have scrub jays and they are so blue.
Once in Rogers Park I saw a glorious red cardinal in a very green tree at Xmas.
I heard it first, then I looked toward the sound.
So when I sit in my chair paying bills, eating, or drinking tea I look out and watch the
birds at the feeder.
I have the Merlin app and love it, especially when I travel.
I don't always see what I hear.

As it is a commitment to feed through out the year. I enjoy bird watching. I prefer to focus on water fowl as they are easier to see, I am happy to see any other birds but I don't focus on them. I did the merit badge in scouts and got into it when we lived right by Central Park. I have also gone out to Broad Channel out in Jamaica Bay out in Queens, really cool migratory water fowl in both the spring and fall. We do try and identify birds where we stay in the summer near the Catskills in NY.

right b4 we split, we went to hawaii. he’s a photo bug and had a 600mm lens. when i’d spot something i couldnt see well, he’d take a pic and i cd figure it out on the laptop. for a minute, i thought we had something.
he’s retired now, remarried, and lives on a lake in mich. he sends me pics of birds, sometimes to id, sometimes just to rub it in, i guess. lol.

i havent even had my binocs out in a while, but i’ve been pretty sick and rarely leave the house these days. hope to get back to it, tho. it was my sanity when the kids were small.

Out here there is a lot to do and I am not terribly social so the critters help. Nature does the trick.