We were big fans of the HBO show, The Sopranos. If you were too, and watched from the beginning, you will understand the reference: "Wild birds are to Charles as ducks were to Tony." If you do not understand that, then suffice it to say that Charles is obsessed with the wild birds in our area.
When we first moved into this house, all he wanted to do was feed them. Since we moved in here in the summer, he had to wait until the late fall and winter to feed them. You see, we are not supposed to put out bird seed until the bears are hibernating. This is considered "feeding" bears and will help to turn a wild bear into a nuisance bear. So he waited until it was "all clear" and he could feed the birds. Last year he put out more bags of seed than I could count. He would sit at the windows and watch birds. He would pick up binoculars and watch them up close. He put out feeders for the smaller birds. He talked about the birds and their feeding habits. Oh, yeah. He was really into those birds. Now when spring came he was sad that he couldn't "take care" of them anymore. I have overheard him on more than one occasion talking to birds telling them he was "sorry, but to come back in the winter." Remember that word I used? Obsessed? OK...
All spring he's been waiting. All summer he's been waiting. Now it's fall and he is still waiting. BUT the other day a bag of birdseed appeared in the hall closet. He, it appears, is done waiting.
On Saturday we got a weather alert from the Weather Channel saying that we were getting our first frost warning of the season. Temperatures were going into the low 30's and so that afternoon we started to "winterize" our porches. Bringing in perennial plants, covering others. Then Charles went to the hall closet and brought out his big bag of seed. I could almost hear his inner monologue..."temperatures at freezing, frost on the ground, frost is like snow, snow equals winter, winter is here! I can feed the birds again!!" Off he went.
Charles has given up on the bird feeders. The bears have knocked down and/or destroyed each of the ones he has put up, so instead of feeders Charles will just make 3-4 giant mounds of seed near the tree line. Kind-of like the buffet line for birds. He is a happy man. His birds will be back shortly.
We wake up Sunday morning, just a few short hours from when he put out the birdseed, and while getting ready to go to fellowship, we notice a ton of blue jays, some crows, a few random brown birds, a rabbit, a hand full of squirrels and eight turkeys all feeding from the mounds. As I was standing there taking photos of the turkeys, who were the last to arrive, my crazy, funny husband says..., "I just wish that more of a variety of critters showed up." Again I say, Husbands say the darnedest things!
(Charles, last winter. Notice the spots in the yard where he removed the snow to put down the seed?)
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