My Birds

I am a bird girl. In high school and early college , I was a vegetarian because of an argument with a fellow student who liked to shoot quail. I used to feel so sad for the little quail families who took shelter from the gun blasts under our willow tree.

Growing up, I had Alfred, a neurotic cockatiel who let me pet her but bit the heck out of anyone else who tried to touch her. (Yes...Alfred was a girl...we found this out after he/she started laying eggs!) Later, after Alfred, Jeff and I had Big Bird, a cockatiel who was actually more neurotic than Alfred. Big Bird shrieked every morning until you let her out, and then she wanted to chew up everything in site. We gave Big Bird to a bird sanctuary and called it a day...no more bird ownership. Now, however, we've made our backyard a place for birds. Jeff's mom is quite a bird person, and I guess we got the idea from her.

Our couple of bird feeders weren't getting much action until Jeff bought a bag of pure sunflower seeds.

"That won't work," I told him. "They like the little seeds in it too."

Little did I know Jeff had discovered what I now call "bird crack". The birds are addicted to the black sunflower seeds. We fill up their feeder, and it is empty the next day! We have a perfect view of them from our family room couch, and we feel better about it because they are free!