Feeder Fun (Part 1)

At the beginning of July, we installed a couple of feeders on the relatively new tree on the west side of our front yard. Here they are from left to right when viewed from the house.



The one on the left is of the traditional kind where the seeds flow through holes at the bottom into the tray. The birds then perch on the edge of the tray to eat the seeds. The idea of the right feeder is that the birds cling to the mesh and pull the seeds through. In retrospect, I put the wrong kind of seed in that feeder. They're too large to fit through the mesh.

The start of July is not a good time to put out feeders for the first time. By then, all the local birds have established where their food sources are and they have generally lost interest in seeking new sources. So, for a few days, nothing happened at either feeder. What's more that was a wet week so we didn't pay a lot of attention to the outside for most of the week. It took eleven days for the birds to find the left feeder. I first saw these two finches enjoying the seeds.



But as I tried to get closer, they flew off.



They soon overcame their fear of me. Here's a shot of a male house finch with seed in its beak. This shot illustrates one of the challenges of photographing birds on a feeder using a zoom lens: the depth of field is so narrow that if the front of the feeder is in focus (as here) the bird is slightly out of focus.



Later that day, the sun came out and I was very pleased to see that a tufted titmouse had found the feeder.



The titmouse was happy to take a seed at a time up into the tree to eat.