ghetto birds

At our apartment we liked to watch the birds in the backyard. We put out bird feeders and the birds would come and eat, a few at a time. Never too many. They all seemed to behave themselves well. The squirrels would sometimes be bullies and push the birds away. We saw cardinals, cowbirds, sparrows, wrens, woodpeckers, and sometimes a gold finch.

So when we moved to the house, we wanted to put out the bird feeders and did. Oh, my gosh....what a mistake. We didn't realize that ghetto birds hang out in this area. They swarmed the bird feeders. It was like a sight out of the movie, Birds. I had the bird feeders in the front, and I thought I heard a couple hit the front window. In fact, one of them was lying dead in the garden. It was a horrible sight. The only birds that came to the feeders were the ugly ones. The sparrows, wrens, grackles, and cowbirds. They were pushy and demanding.

I moved the feeders to the back of the house and decided that when all the seed was gone that I would not fill them up again. I hated seeing them act like that.

Then I told our neighbor about them. She said that one year she had tried to re-seed some of her grass and the birds kept coming and eating the grass seed. So she thought if she put some seed in a pie pan it would keep the birds away from her grass. She said they swarmed the pan and that later there was a dead bird lying in the middle of the pan.

Tonight, I saw a swarm of birds hanging out on the street corner. They found a piece of bread and they were all fighting over the piece, stealing it from each other, pecking at each other. I swear we have ghetto birds living in this area. That is probably the only thing I miss about our apartment.