Do you ever have a wonderful idea? You get excited and move forward with your plan. But down the road somewhere, you have one of those moments where you realize you did not think the master plan through very well.
That's what happened with my great idea to put a bird feeder outside my office window. I really enjoy watching the variety of birds that gather there. We have had all colors - red, blue, yellow, browns, blacks. It has been so much fun watching them flit back and forth.
We have had some scarlet finches who are adorable. They are small and have a red head and red breast. Beautiful creatures. But very sociable creatures. They must love to spread the word when they find a great place to eat. We started out with seeing one or two pairs (male and female) showing up at various times throughout the day. Then we got a couple more. Next thing you know, we had 19 of these little cute birds setting on the bird feeder, on the feeder roof, on the top of the pole holding the feeder, on the window sill beside the feeder. Little cute birds everywhere.
It was priceless. Until the feed ran low.
With that many birds coming to dinner, they were flipping seeds out of the feeder tray like crazy and the seeds landed on the window sill. This meant that the cute little birdies would sit right on the window sill to have lunch.
Then when there was no more seed, they would look at me inside at my desk (which is right in front of the window.) They start pecking on the glass and flapping their wings to get my attention. Which wouldn't be too bad except for two major things:
1. There are usually several doing it at one time
2. I saw Alfred Hitchcock, The Birds, when I was about 7 or 8 years old.
Now anybody that saw The Birds will understand that this pecking and flapping of wings can get a little scary.
Had I realized I was laying the ground work for The Birds - The Sequel, I would have had to think a little harder before I put the feeders up.
I have tried to get over my Hitchcock induced fear of birds and for the most part have succeeded. Several years back, I was on a boat in the Gulf heading out to Shell Island. The seagulls were all around us. The Captain said if you held out a Cheeto they would come and take it gently from your hands. Everybody was doing this so I thought, "Here is a good way to overcome my fear of birds." I purchased some Cheetos, opened the bag, held it out to the gulls. About 4 or 5 headed my way in a flurry of feathered wings. As they hastily approached my outstretched hand, I remembered the movie and threw my whole bag of Cheetos at them and withdrew to the interior of the boat. Guess I just thought I could get over the fear.
Probably should have remembered that adventure before putting a bird feeder so close to my window.
