We worry abaout the wild birds, and now the word is out: lots of food available here! We're used to seeing 7 pairs of Cardinals, numerous Juncos, a few Carolina Chickadees, Tufted Titmice, Downey Woodpeckers, Red-bellied Woodpeckers, Blue Jays, various sparrows and several other varieties of birds. This morning, Vashi counted 13 pair of cardinals, and later I counted at least 30 pairs (of course we're only counting the males; it's too hard to count both)! We also had at least one bluebird, several Goldfinches, a pair of tri-colored blackbirds (we rarely see them, especially not at the feeders), a trio of cowbirds (boo!), as well as the other usual birds. I know we had at least 100 birds in that small area most of the afternoon and evening. We've run out of birdseed (I forgot to remind Vashi to stock up on it yesterday), but I searched on the internet to see what things we have on had we could feed them. Several of the grains I feed my poultry can be fed to them, which I knew, as well as oatmeal, cornmeal, bananas, raisins, and lots of other things. We have enough to feed in the morning, but if Vashi can't get in to buy more, they may have slim pickings tomorrow evening. It's a serious situation for the wild birds.
Hope lots of others are also feeding them. With everything coated with ice, they don't have access to any of their usual food. We've also poured warm water in the birdbath over and over. We didn't get a de-icer for it this year.
We've enough snow on the trees surrounding the poultry pens that the snow is doing a good job of insulating them and keeping them quite comfy.
Hope everyone stays safe and warm!
