Yoo-hoo!

Day 218: Bad photo, I know, but I wanted to show context. This...this right here is what happens when I inadvertently let the feeders go empty. In this case, it was a female Black-Headed Grosbeak, but the males, the Chickadees and the hummingbirds all know that if I'm sitting at the computer, they can come around to the front window and glare at me until I look up, which I usually do fairly quickly because...well, because you know that feeling you get when somebody is staring at you? Yeah, that. I never put more than a cup of seed in each feeder because the pigeons, starlings and blackbirds would clean up the food in no time flat. As it is, I stand at the window and shoo them away until the invited guests arrive. That said, when you're feeding a hundred or so "parrots," three cups of black-oil seed disappears pretty fast. I make them clean their plates, so to speak, to resort to picking through husks on the ground or to search for tiny bits in the trays, but when they truly hit "empty," this is what happens. Have they got me trained? You bet. And I wouldn't have it any other way.