A wonderful pole feeder with suet holder sits outside my
dining table window. Early morning moments, when I am not harried in
preparation for the commute to work, I enjoy looking over sleeping gardens and
the lively music and antics of birds in flight and feeding. I am especially fond of the woodpeckers.
Yet, of late, I have become disenchanted by the starlings
which have aggressive tendencies and a gluttonous appetite for suet. Have I mentioned my love of woodpeckers? So, to discourage the starlings, I allowed my
seed and suet feeders to go empty. Then,
I sat at the dining table and looked out the window and waited. Beyond the sleeping gardens there was…quiet
stillness. No birdsong, no frolicking flight. Nothing but the cold still landscape of a NJ
winter.
Two days my feeders remained empty. This morning I gazed out my window to see a house
finch looking directly at me – daring me to make sense of the empty feeders. Temperatures are expected to drop this week. A humbling moment. I bundled up and went outside to fill the
feeders. I returned to my window view and saw a blue jay, a chickadee, a cardinal, 2
woodpeckers, and yes, a starling. Life
is good.
