We have a new Walmart in town. This isn’t either a sponsored post or a shameless plug. It is just a fact. I’ve lived in this community for 27 years and Walmart has eluded us. With larger cities located around our town in San Diego County, Walmart has set up shop in those cities instead.
Until now.
And, because, until now, the nearest Walmart to my country home is 20+ miles away, I have not been a regular Walmart shopper. In fact, I think I’ve been to Walmart 3 times in my life: Hawaii (in an earlier post, I promised I’d write a post called “The Road to Walmart” about our trek to the Walmart in Oahu, Hawaii – still haven’t done it yet {grin}), one in a community south of me and one in a community north of me.
Anyway, not only does my community now have a Walmart, but it also has a separate Walmart grocery store! Excited about these two new stores, I trekked to each to see what the hoopla is all about. Anyway, both are impressive and I spent hours and hours exploring both.
And, I bought stuff – of course, I bought stuff! {grin}.
And, this bird feeder is one of the things I bought. Even though we have hundreds of birds that live on our property, I’ve never fed them before now. It’s just one of those things that hasn’t been a priority over the last 6+ years. When we lost our home in the 2007 wildfire, and almost everything we owned in the world along with it, a bird feeder didn’t make the shopping list.
Until now.
We have a wonderful songbird that serenades us throughout the day. In reality, it isn’t one bird but a flock of the same bird that sings the same melodic song. I vowed to reward their generous gift, even though their revelry starts bright and early every day, usually before 6:00 a.m. Not being a bird expert, I had no idea which species of the multiple species that make our home their home was sharing their special gift.
Until now.
I placed this feeder in a tree outside my home office window. Within the first day, it was empty! I started paying close attention to the visitors and realized that it was mostly a red-headed bird, unidentified until I looked him up on-line.
And, yes, he’s a “him”. The red-headed birds that grace our property are male House Finches. We have plenty of female House Finches, too, but they are just a drab brown, much like other bird species, where the male is a gorgeous creature with fabulous plumage and the female? Not so much.
Anyway, this little piggy of a bird species drains this feeder every day. Within a week, I’d used up the 10 pounds of feed that I bought at our new Walmart to go with the feeder! Extrapolating the cost of buying a 10 pound bag of bird seed a week – well, let’s just say that Charlie is NOT happy about this new addition to our budget!
There’s a Disney song from the movie “Mary Poppins” called “Feed the Birds”. About an old woman selling breadcrumbs to passers-by to feed the pigeons of St. Paul’s Cathedral, part of the lyrics are:
Feed the birds, tuppence a bag
Tuppence, tuppence, tuppence a bag
Feed the birds, that’s what she cries
While overhead, her birds fill the sky…
Said to be Walt Disney’s favorite song, because it’s really a metaphor about the gifts of charity, it was written by the Sherman brothers. Have you seen “Saving Mr. Banks” about the creation of the Mary Poppins movie? Great movie…
Now I’m hooked. You see, I just can’t let the bird feeder go empty! It’s just not in my soul. I want those little piggy red-headed birds and their lady birds to have whatever they need so they stick around and keep singing to me.
Because while this old lady is feeding their tummies, they are feeding my soul…
Tootles,
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(other posts about birds)
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