IN THE GARDEN Jigsaw Puzzles 3

BABY ROBIN Looking Down From Nest

HAND FEEDING CHICKADEES

FIRST ATTEMPT
I had read that other people could get Chickadees to eat from their hand, and thinking "wow" this is pretty neat, so I thought I would give it a try. I loaded my hand with unsalted peanuts went outside stood next to the bird feeders and stuck out my hand then tried not to move a muscle "no easy feat". It was quite some time before the Chickadees were comfortable enough to land on the pole that holds the feeders but I could see that they were checking out the peanuts,they would sit there for a while looking at the peanuts then eventually fly down to the black oil sunflower feeder grab a seed then fly back into the trees. By this time my arm was getting pretty sore but I was determined and said to myself "just a couple minutes more, you can do this just a couple minutes more". This almost payed off, I say almost because although they didn't land on my hand a couple of them did swoop down towards the peanuts and then quickly fly back to the trees. This got me excited and I wanted to stay there a while longer but I couldn't ignore my arm any longer, not only was it killing me but it was also starting to shake, so not really feeling defeated I dropped my arm and went back inside the house with the determination of giving it another try the next day.
SECOND ATTEMPT
I had spent the evening trying to figure out a more comfortable way of going about this and came up with a solution that I put into action the very next morning. I removed the screen from the bedroom window since this room had the best view of the feeders and instead of just holding out my arm I was able to rest it on the window sill. For a while I got a repeat of the day before and then to my delight a brave little chickadee landed on my hand , "it was so light that I could hardly feel it". He/She just stood there for a while , I was afraid the bird would sense how excited I was and fly away, and it did fly away but not until it had grabbed a peanut. One of them was a little more cautious it pecked at one of my fingers "checking to see if the new feeder was safe is my guess", then it picked up a peanut and flew back to the trees with it. I was hooked. By the time my arm got to sore to hold out the window any longer two more Chickadees had landed and taken a peanut. I continued this daily ritual until the weather got cold enough to freeze my hand before my arm even got sore and each day a few more birds than the day before would feed from my hand. The final count for that year was fifteen Chickadees which is good considering that I started in late fall. Over the winter I continued to give them peanuts only now I was putting them in the feeder with their sunflower seeds and waiting for next spring to start all over again.
NEXT SPRING
Once I stopped putting the peanuts in the feeder it didn't take long for the Chickadees to start feeding from my hand again and I also had the pleasure of watching a Chickadee take a peanut from my nine year old grandson Austins hand on his first attempt, a memory I'll treasure for the rest of my life.
Be sure to check out the "28 seconds" video of me feeding them. You'll even see the Chickadee that pecked my finger.