Backyard Blessings

This is the view from where I often sit in my back porch, or lanai as it is called here in Florida. You can see my bird feeders hanging there and the plants and fountain that my husband installed for me. He calls it my Botannical wonderland. I sit out there more these days because I don’t leave the house as much now with the virus out there, and the weather is just right. Sunny and cool mornings which lead into sunny and warm afternoons.

My feeders have attracted different kinds of birds. Last year we had beautiful bluebirds come for the dried mealworms. I haven’t spotted any yet this year, but I do have a possessive mockingbird who dive bombs other birds who come to the feeders. Perhaps they came and were scared away. When I first hung the feeders many grackles would dominate them. I hung two more feeders, platforms with room for more birds at one time. Since then I haven’t seen the grackles in such large groups., and the seed is lasting longer. I am excited to see a pair of red-bellied woodpeckers come to the two caged tube feeders I filled with a fruit and nut mix. One feeder is made especially for woodpeckers with a place for them to rest their tails. It also is spring loaded so squirrels and multiple birds, or heavy oat tail grackles, force it to close. Unfortunately two woodpeckers at one time are weighty enough to close it, too, so they use both feeders then. Yesterday one was on the feeder when a grackle landed on top. The woodpecker stopped feeding, went to the top of the feeder and faced the grackle with her sharp beak open. That was enough to make the grackle leave. No fighting, just staring down, a Cold War of sorts. On another spring loaded feeder with perches for small birds, I see small palm and pine warblers, and earlier in winter a pair of cardinals as well.

Matthew 6:26
Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your Heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?