My Daily Visitors

All My Animal Friends

Happy Sunday!  What could I possibly write about on such a beautiful day? Well, the sweet little birds and creatures that come to visit my home daily, of course!

When I bought the house, I had a UV film put on the back and front windows of the house on the main floor.  The intent was to save on the energy bills and help the furniture, rugs and things from fading so quickly.  The added bonus, was that during the day, the windows look like a mirror from the outside.  The plus to that is, of course, that people can’t look inside, but that is only during the daytime.  At night, you can see right in.

So, I got this great idea that I could feed some of our feathered friends at the windows and they wouldn’t see the cats and be frightened away.  I began to do that on our back deck, which is on the second story of the house.  Well, of course, there was bird poop everywhere!  Not very appealing, when you want to sit outside.

I then decided to have the film put on the downstairs windows at the back of the house and feed the birds on the patio.  We don’t go out there very often, so I wasn’t worried about the poop everywhere, that gets washed away with the rain.

Through trial and error, I have discovered that the best way to feed my visitors, is with small dog dishes.  One for the peanuts for the blue jays and one with seeds and things for the smaller birds.  I even put out a big dog dish, with hard cat food that my critters don’t like, hoping to attract the rabbits and other critters.  Did you know that seagulls would rather eat cat food, than bird food.  Hm, I guess they will eat anything.

So, when I come down for my workout in the morning, I fill the bowls and have many visitors, while I work out.  I have a rabbit that comes to visit, two chipmunks, a robin or two (I thought they only ate worms, but it seems they eat seeds too), some blue jays, mourning doves and the odd seagull.  Oh and I also get a bird that I was told was a starling, but when I looked him up they are common gackles.   I’m not too crazy about the gackles.  They are quite mean to the other birds and chase them away.

I have to say that having these visitors makes me quite happy.  It’s nice to see the cats’ reactions, although the cats are getting quite weary of the visitors--you’ve see one bird you’ve see them all?  They only seem to be interested in the chipmunks and the blue jays.

We don’t get as many of the visitors in the winter, but we do get a couple.  I just don’t need to fill the bowls as often.

Below are pictures of my cats enjoying the birds.  Enjoy and God bless!