Friday, August 15, 2008

The Dirty Birdies

The Evil Twin and I have always called birds "dirty birdies". I'm not sure why. Perhaps just because it rhymes and sounds ridiculous? We also use that phrase when talking about bird food, too.

We've always enjoyed feeding the wild birds.

At our old house, we had a deck with sliding glass doors where we had mounted a bird feeder. We could see it from the den/dining room area and always got a kick out of seeing how many different little dirty birdies we could attract with seed and suet.

Our current house is different and while we do have a bird feeder out back, it's not visible from the main part of the house. We still put seed in it for the visitors.

I decided to get a plastic bird feeder with suction cups that mounts onto a window. I put it in our big bay window on the front of the house.

This window is right behind the love seat where my lazy rear end is parked most of the time.

Every time a little bird lands on that feeder, I hear this scritchy sound and it startles me every.single.time.

I mean, it's not bad enough that we have Apple, our resident budgie (or parakeet, if you prefer). Always over there hopping around and chirping, driving me nutz - then, I have to mount a bird feeder from my front window so that I can be further annoyed by the noise of other birds coming to visit.

What can I say, I'm a sucker for punishment. And, I love to look at the pretty dirty birdies. :-)

17 comments:

  1. Does it bother Apple to see the other Free birds while it is trapped in a cage? If your not careful it will start to act out and possibly even light a little tiny mattress on fire in an attempt create confusion while attempting an escape.

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  2. I love watching the hummingbirds that come to my birdfeeders.

    They are just the cutest things. And quiet.

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  3. My parents have pet squirrels. "Bushy" and "Molly".

    You people and your wildlife. ;)

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  4. Your scritchy bird feet = my cell phone. I jump every time that sucker goes off.

    You kids must love that feeder. What a cool idea! The TH needs one for the furry residents. It'd be like pet teevee!

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  5. Ron - LOL. don't worry, Apple gets "free time" outside of his cage - but, surprisingly, he loves being in his cage.

    Catscratch - I know! They are so cute!

    Laura - we got your wildlife over here, that's for sure.

    Tiff - I'm sure cats would enjoy it. Apple (our own bird) seems to ignore it. I thought he'd like it.

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  6. "pretty bird...pretty bird"

    hehe reminds me of the blind boy in Dumb and Dumber. Just plain cruel! lol

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  7. I've been wanting one of those. I used to have an air conditioner in my living room window and a single red bird would come by several times a day.

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  8. I have a very dirty-birdy yard. There is a big pond surrounded by trees and flowers near my house and the birds seem to just sort of flock here. Behind the 2nd-story back porch sits this huge apple tree, and its branches are right at porch level. The tree is dying, and is leaning precariously, but is such a beautiful place to watch birds, I hesitate to cut it down. Well, that, and the fact that it's still bringing us tons of apples each year!

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  9. I stopped feeding the birds at my house. They would eat their fill, then leave their 'dirty birdie turdies' on my windshield.

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  10. Oh, how I love to watch the birds outside. I used to have a full-on bird and squirrel gym-bo-ree going on my river lot (where we could sit on the porch and watch them in the morning), but my neighbors bitched so much about the pigeons who also flocked to the seeds and dried corn that I eventually gave up on them.

    I saw an ad in Birds & Blooms magazine once for a bird feeder that looks like a person. The seeds when in the "person's" hand. After the birds were used to it, a real person could stand with seeds in his or her hand and the wild birds would land and eat. Can't find it now, but that would be a fun summer project with the kids, wouldn't it?

    Birds & Blooms website has a story on teaching hummingbirds to eat from your hand right now, but if I link you'll only get it in the tiny haloscan window.

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  11. He he he... "dirty birdies"... snicker snicker... Ok.. sorry, I'll get my mind out of the gutter just thinking about those 2 words!

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  12. How is it that Ron (of the warped mind) always manages to be in the top five commenters EVERYWHERE?!?!?!

    Has anyone else noticed this?

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  13. AC- I know you love the feathered friends, no matter how silly it seems!

    honeywine - I found this one online at Petsmart (free shipping - I am allll about the free shipping!).

    Rebecca - we have a crabapple tree. It's nice 'cause it brings the deer and other woodland critters. It's nice to live outside the "havoc".

    Carolyn, LOL. The turdies are something of a problem. But, we regularly have piles of deer doo doo, so a little dirty birdy splat is nuttin'.

    BB - you need to meet Apple. He is fairly tame. He'll sit on your hand or head, but won't eat from that. He's a neat little dirty birdy.

    JFab - I totally get that.... Truly, I do. That's another blog!

    Stew - Ron obviously cares more than anyone else. In fact, I feel cheated if I'M not in his top five!

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  14. Muhhahahahahah!!! I'm everywhere!

    I just goof off more at work than everyone else is all.

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  15. I too, love to watch the birds at the feeders. Just yesterday I bought yet another 50# bag of sunflower seeds...WTF?....this stuff has gone, in just this year, from $18/50# to $26/50#! Geez...these freakin birds eat better than I do ;) But....I have tons of Cardinals and I find they put me in a very relaxed mood, just by watching them.

    Uh...Squirrels in the feeder have the opposite effect ;)

    Elle...Pet Squirrels????? Hmmpf....rats w/ bushy tails , ya mean ;)

    J-Fab: Hehe...love your 'mind in the gutter' :)

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  16. I have several hummingbird feeders, but no hummingbirds this year:-(

    I have the window birdfeeder and it drives the cats crazy. Good fun!

    But we're twisted like that.

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  17. I, too, am a sucker for little birdies chirping nearby!

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