Life's sadness

I found a dead bird behind my neighbor's house.  It really saddened me. ... even more than it would have in my old work days.  It saddened me because I spend every morning with house finches, chickadees, titmouse(s), and a male and female cardinal.  I attached a  bird feeder to my kitchen window and fill it every morning with black sunflower seeds.  It took about ten days for the birds to find it, but now they are there every morning and every evening.  The little ones hop up onto the window sill and peer into the kitchen.  They look like little nosy neighbors.  I'm not sure they've seen anything worth seeing, but they still do it.  The male Cardinal is pretty bossy and opens his beak in a threatening manner to anyone who approaches the feeder while he is eating.  Yesterday a small bird (I'm not sure what kind) was sitting in the bird feeder and sort of menacing anyone who came near.

Do squirrels kill birds?  I need to Google that.  Otherwise, it is the neighbor's cat.  I like cats (not as much as dogs), but I wish they stayed in their homes and were not out hunting.  They don't even kill the birds to eat (which I could sort of understand), but just for fun, I guess.  [This is my neighbor's cat.  He looks menacing, don't you think?]

I'm having an on-going battle with the squirrels, too.  I hope they don't kill birds, but I also wish they would stay away from my bird feeder.  I don't begrudge them the food, and would be willing to give them some, but they are too heavy for the feeder.  This afternoon, two of them were hanging around the window downstairs, making noise, and threatening to scale the walls to my bird feeder.  The cute thing is that when they come to the window to start their climb, they come face to face with me.  I am mad at them, but they are so cute, I can't stay that way.




Then I've got my gold finches.  Unbelievable, but it took all those other birds ten days to find my bird feeder.  It took these little beauties about one hour to find the gold finch food.

I don't know how they communicate with each other, but they must have a system.  Look at them.  They look like little parakeets and they are at the feeder ALL DAY.  Sometimes when they fly off, they fly so close to my head that I think I could touch them.

I hope I never find a dead gold finch....or a dead squirrel, for that matter.