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After a week of almost total neglect, the birds are finally flocking to the new feeder on my back porch. I’d begun to wonder if they would ever come back around, but for the last two days there have been two or three at a time on the feeder nearly all day long. Finches, mostly, it seems so far. Sometimes I chase the crows away, but only because they bully the smaller birds. Besides, all they’re interested in is knocking the seed onto the ground. If they prefer to feed off the ground, there are better places.
The other birds are coming back to the yard, too. The sparrows and phoebes never leave for good, but lately I’ve also seen a few orioles. These aren’t the orange eastern ones, but the bright yellow western variety. And this afternoon I was treated to the return of the bushtits, scampering all over the garden in clusters, flying (and landing) upside down at times. Or so it seems.
It’s been brutally hot all week, until today, which is why I was out in the garden at all. After making myself a hollow promise to get out every day and fill the yard waste container every week, I haven’t done any weeding since I hauled the container in from the road last Friday. I even got an extra day, because of the holiday. Pickup this week is on Saturday morning instead of Friday. When I started working, I thought I was just getting a head start on filling it up for next week, but I kept at it until it was full nearly to the top, so out to the road it went.
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