Thoity Poiple Boids...

Mom used to say this little ditty, apropos of nothing in particular:
     "Thoity poiple boids, sitting on the coib
     A'choipin and a'boipin
     And eatin' doity woims"

Translation:  "thirty purple birds, sitting on the curb, chirping and burping and eating dirty worms."

I thought of this ditty this morning when we looked out and saw over twenty Mourning Doves sitting on the power lines, waiting to descend on our seed feeder.  There are so many of them that they drive the smaller birds out.  We recently switched to a seed mix that includes more safflower seed in the hope that they wouldn't gobble so much of it, but that doesn't seem to be working; there are more of them than ever, although they may be flocking right now.  Or maybe they just told all their friends and relatives what a great buffet our feeder is.  Maybe they just used "twitter".

We tried taking the tray off the bottom of the finch feeder for this reason, and the Goldfinches have come back in force since we did that, so we may do the same with the seed feeder.  Some of the Mourning Doves sit on nearby branches and stare at the finch feeder, evidently trying to figure out how to get back at that great nyjer thistle seed they used to enjoy.  One dove even stretched out so far trying to get to it that I thought he was going to fall right off the branch.  He didn't fall, but he couldn't reach the feeder, either.  The doves are really ground feeders, so I think we can count on them to clean up any seed that falls on the ground before the squirrel gets it.

Another bird that will enjoy having seed on the ground will be the California Thrasher that seems to hang out in our shrubbery. It darts out of the hedge, eats a few seeds and is off again.  Sometimes it will venture up onto the suet feeder and eat some of the suet.  We've seen an amazing variety of birds since we put the feeders up last winter.  We had no idea there were so many Goldfinches in the area; we rarely saw them before we put up the finch feeder, and now they're here all the time.

The birds are also now using the birdbath we put in over a year ago.  We called it the "bird repelling fountain" for most of the first year after we installed it, because birds seemed to avoid it, even though water sources for birds are scarce in this environment.  It had its own solar panel to create a little fountain in the center, at least when the sun is shining.  We thought the sound and motion of the water would attract birds, but it initially seemed to have the opposite effect.  We tried changing the flow from fountain to trickle, but nothing worked.  We finally took the solar panel out last winter because it wasn't getting any sun anyway, and replaced it with a large, rough textured rock.  Once we put the feeders in, though, there was no more hesitation--the birds use it constantly now.