Feeding the Birds

I know that eastern burbs feature lots of animal denizens, but out here in the west our cities are host to quite the assortment of wildlife.

I'm about 5 minutes from downtown. There's at least one racoon in the neighborhood that I see pretty often. a few years ago walking the dog in a school playfield one early morning I peered into a garbage can standing at the end of some bleacher seats and was greeted by the ratlike face of an opossum. He or she was rather upset being unable to get out of the can. I tipped it sideways.

I've seen coyotes inside the city limits. There are a lot of bald eagles nesting in various locations around town. Nothing like what we can see in the cabin we stay at in Montana, but it seems to me a lot more than cities back east.

The birds are coming back now, and with the trees still bare it is easy to see them. We've got robins now and a scrub jay. We've had hummingbirds all winter. We set up a feeder last year and attracted a pair of Annas we dubbed Bill and Hillary. There's a new batch this year--at least four or five different ones. Fun to watch. I've been on the deck using the grill and had one feeding two feet away.

Last year when the feeder froze one night, in the morning Hillary perched on top of it and seemed to be scolding me. I got with the program very quickly and thawed it out.

It's our second time with bird feeding. The last one we stopped after one of our cats proved unusually adept at snagging birds from the deck rail.

Then there was one weekend winter day when we heard thunks from our window and discovered that a group of grosbeaks were busy getting drunk on berries in the tree by the window and then flying into it. Went on for quite a while.

This year the orcas are back in the sound early. The weather has been much milder than normal, more days to see Rainier as I drive back toward the house. We are thinking about taking our "yacht" (the ferry) out to one of the local islands this weekend. It does not promise to be sunny but it should be mild.

Something special when you live where the mountains and the sea come together, and where eagles nest in the city. I'm really glad the accidents of life brought me here.