Last weekend the sparrows were busy bringing their newly fledged babies to feed in our yard. They stayed mostly on the ground picking up bits from the grass and mulched area under the feeder. It usually went like this: mom and dad sparrow hop around a find a few morsels and when the babies saw this they'd turn on the charm by peeping and fluttering their wings in a most helpless way. Today most of the sparrows I see are feeding themselves so perhaps the babies have learned what they were supposed to!
Yesterday and today I noticed several black-capped chickadees hanging out in our birch tree. Chickadees commonly grab one seed at a time and fly off to a branch where they can pick at the shell until they get the seed out, so I figured word got out that I put more sunflower in the tray so everyone came for a bite to eat. But then I noticed this very panicked, and persistent, and relentless high-pitched squeak, much like, "dee-dee-dee!! DEE-DEE-DEE!!!!!!!"
Trusty binoculars in hand, I watched them for a while. Some of those chickadees were plump and fluffy, and didn't know what to do at the feeder. They spent most of their time in the tree while the mature chickadees were back and forth, back and forth between feeder and tree. And the babies were doing their part of the dance by singing to mom and dad: "PUT FOOD IN MY MOUTH! RIGHT NOW!!!! DEE-DEE-DEE!"
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