BBG: Birds Be Gone

Why, yes, it did take me all the way until the middle of August to conciously wonder why I had not seen many birds in my yard. And then bam, there I was talking to myself.

"You know, there haven't been any birds around this summer," I said to me. "Usually they are hanging out at the fountain and eating my berries and annoying the cat and picking at the lettuce. They haven't even been having this-is-my-sunflower-get-your-own wars!"

Well, there was that one day there was a beautiful yellow finch eating off the cosmos seeds. But that was it.

Doesn't take me long. I put 2 and 2 together.

This was because I had just noticed WHAT was making the squawking sounds all summer...I KNEW it sounded like a bird that eats other things,like meat. But I couldn't locate the culprit.

Guess where this bird, who had found perfect hunting grounds in my backyard, was nesting? And chilling?

Notice the sparrow hawk on top of the pole. My zoom does not do justice. He was eye-balling me!

Nesting? Right behind our fence in a huge tree. Chilling? Top of the power pole behind our fence.

Sheesh. Sparrow hawks been having a good time in the ole garden of Q.

If you ever feel like small birds are destroying your garden, just encourage one of these sparrow hawks to nest. No more problems for you. Except noise.

So. My birds be gone. Boo-hoo.

(Those are my sunflowers in the foreground. Same bird is on top of the pole. His mate is outlined on a branch in the big tree behind him.)