Feathers …Attached to Beating Hearts…in Our Backyard
Ever heard the expression, “That’s for the birds?” What do you suppose the world wide web tells us about the expression, “That’s for the birds?” Save yourself a few moments of your busy life, here are the top three (according to me).
1. “That’s for the birds has a negative meaning: worthless.
But…It’s not worthless when we refer to REAL birds. If money interests you read the second one…
2. People spend enormous amounts of money to WATCH birds. Local communities benefit from money spent on lodging, food, and transportation to the estimated whopping sum of $14.9 BILLION dollars. (Sorry for the capital letters, I am excited about this.) (data from the United States Fish and Wildlife Service)
3. There is even a Top Ten places in the United States to go to be in the best birding spot! They are:
1. Nome, Alaska
2. Mount Desert Island, Maine
3. Grand Isle, Louisiana
4. Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge, New Mexico
5. Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge, Maryland
6. Cave Creek Canyon, Arizona
7. Monterey Bay, California
8. Everglades National Park, Florida
9. Tule Lake, California
10. Denali National Park, Alaska
Ok, right, the Top Ten Places probably are not practical, for numerous reasons, right now.
Would you like an alternative?
No additional expenses, no travel (a few steps maybe), and no restrictions…except bedtime?
Try your backyard…use these suggestions to get you started.
This blog is for you and your kids. It’s about you enjoying birds with them. The birds are not worthless. Birds have great purpose on this earth. One of them is for people, birds are for people to enjoy.
There is a 4th reason to watch birds:
Birds are a link for people to know God.
First, bird watching is worthwhile. It can be expensive, but not in your backyard. Birding is a lifetime activity providing lifetime pleasure and adventure. Your kids will love it. They like feathers. They like eggs. They like bird flight. They enjoy bird calls…and behaviors. You will too.
Another reason to become a bird watcher and teach your children to enjoy and watch them too, birds are a link to God. He made them. He uses them to show us His eternal power and divine nature. Connect your kids to birds and they will always have a link to Eternal God. You will too. Watch the birds…see the “Hand” of God.
To get you and your kids started on Backyard Birding…Here are five you may find in your backyard. They are living in ours:
The American Robin…this male perches on the cross bar of our bird feeder. His mouth is filled with insects he is feeding to the “fledged” young Robins his mate hatched beneath our deck. Robins are wonderful birds to introduce to your kids…common, and easily identified, usually visible.
American Robin
Chickadees are one of my favorite birds. Teach your children about the chickadee. The Chickadee is a year-around resident for our latitude 46.9° North. We can delight in their year around energy filled actions every day of the calendar year. These almost ready to fly young (5) were hatched and raised in a nest box…in our back yard. I did not dare disturb them long…just long enough for a photo.
Black-Capped Chickadee…Chickadee nests are lined with lichen and rabbit fur.
Tree Swallow
There is a female Tree Swallow incubating eggs in this photo. Do you see one way to identify a Tree Swallow nest? Feathers! The Tree Swallows are wonderful feather collectors at nest time. The female is sitting on 5 eggs white eggs the size of an adult’s little fingernail. Where was this nest box? In our backyard. While we have a larger lot, it is less than an acre.
The head of the mother bird is just behind the feathers in the left front of the box.
Another one of my favorite birds is the Bluebird. This is a male. He has more than one insect in his mouth. Just after this photo was taken, He “popped” into the box and fed more than one of the 4 young in the box. Then in a blink he was out and on the fly for the next mouthful. His mate, the female came almost behind him with another mouthful of live insects for the others in the box who did not get fed. How do they know who gets fed next? You already know, this nest box is in our backyard.
This is a male Bluebird. He is as busy as his mate feeding the young in this box.
Our 5th Backyard Bird is the House Wren. This is the male. Male and female house wrens look almost identical. The female was too elusive for me to take her picture. As soon as I left, she flew back into the nest box to incubate her eggs. Wrens build their nests of twigs. They fill Bluebird nest boxes to the top. I do not know how many eggs she has in her nest. I do not want to disturb the nest to find out. The House Wrens occupy our 4th Bluebird nest box…in our backyard.
The House Wren will use a Bluebird nest box, if it is close to trees. This Spruce tree is our neighbor’s. The male House Wren shown in this photo helped his mate gather twigs for their nest. The nest box is about 10 feet from this tree. Guess what kind of twigs make up their nest? (Spruce)
There we go…Backyard birding is my suggestion for you and your kids.
It is inexpensive.
It is convenient.
It gets you and your whole family outside…and it creates a love of nature which may become a life-long pleasure.
Most important, your kids can see God’s power and divine nature!
I decided this will be the first of a series on backyard birds…more to come. Thank you for taking the journey to birds with me.