Bird Watching

A Hawk

Bird watching is what has kept me sane the past few winters. Indiana has been quite snowy and at times frigid cold. We typically have doves, snowbirds, sparrows, nuthatches and on occasion a couple of cardinals. It is hard to miss those bright red cardinals against the white snow.  

Although the hawk does not eat the seeds from the feeders, we still like seeing the bird of his size come to visit. Last year he or she set in the blue spruce tree and this year I have seen it more in the front yard scoping out the empty field across the road.

Male Cardinal

This winter, we have been blessed with red finches, an abundance of red finches. I wondered what location has temperatures and winter conditions worse than we have that the red finches would migrate here. 

Grey Squirrel enjoying sunflower seeds

The birds are not fussy; we buy a large bag of wild birdseed with a blend of seeds, however, the last time my husband accidentally purchased a bag that had a lot of cracked corn but even the doves and squirrel will eat that.

 

I would say the most popular in all our feeders is the black oil sunflower seed; even the squirrel found them and decided to set in the feeder and enjoy them. We have already purchased two 50 lb bags from the Big R store to keep the eight feeders full.

Red finch on gourd feeder

Do you enjoy bird watching and feeding them? What variety of birds do you see in the winter and what is their favorite food?

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