Filed under: Feathered Friends>Chicadees

http://www.youtube.com/user/davidpmerle

When I can't bike to work, I take the subway to 242nd Street and either take the bus, walk or 'shuffle' home. Sometimes I cut through the golf course just cause its prettier. On Friday, February 15th I ducked through the fence and was walking by the 5th tee. I had my cell phone in my hand because I was getting ready to call Shirley, when, in a mad flutter or wings, a bird landed on my cell phone. Naturally, I was startled and my sudden movement caused the bird to fly away, but less than a minute later, he was back. He landed on my phone a second time and I had a couple of seconds to look at him as he insolently stared at me. It was a chickadee!

Well, I knew what that meant. Chickadees are not interested in making long distance calls or texting their friends; this chickadee wanted seeds. So Saturday Shirley and I came back to the same spot with sunflower seeds and we practiced standing like statues for 30 minutes with our hands out holding sunflower seeds. Nothing. No birds anywhere. We left disappointed but came back on Sunday for another attempt. Again at the same spot we stood like statues to no avail. After about 10 minutes we left and went for a walk after scattering a couple of hand fulls of seeds on the ground. On our way back to the car, we passed the spot where we had scattered the seeds and it was obvious there had been a feeding frenzy. There were sunflower shells everywhere. I took the bag of sunflower seeds out of my pocket and poured some into my hand and before I could put the bag away my chickadee swooped in and landed on my hand. I stood there as my chickadee made several trips. In the bush right next to me there were two pretty grey birds who watched this with intense interest. Every time the chickadee landed for another seed, they hopped closer on the bush. A couple times they tried to fly to my hand but turned back in a flurry of feathers as they discovered that it was just too scary.

I let Shirley take over with the seeds and almost immediately the grey birds (they turned out to be tufted titmice) landed in her hand and started feeding. Check here to see the videos of me and Shirley feeding the birds. For the entire time, the chickadees preferred coming to me and the tufted titmice preferred going to Shirley.

http://www.youtube.com/user/davidpmerle