Have you ever done bird watching? A couple of months ago on a Saturday, Bryan and I wanted to walk around and took some pictures to try out Bryan’s new lens. We drove to a near park. And little as we know, there are tons of different kinds of birds. The birds are always around us and we just have to look. So on that day, we saw snowy egret, great egret, red-tailed hawk, prairie falcon, red-winged blackbird, and a few hummingbirds. We really had no idea that all these birds living so close to us. Simply amazing.
Snowy Egret at Playa Vista Central Park
Allen’s Hummingbird at Playa Vista Central Park
Ever since then, I wanted to have a bird feeder. It is lucky that we live in a triplex, so we kind of have a front yard. We went down to a store calls Wild Birds Unlimted in Torrance. That store sells everything related to bird feeding. The store owner was very friendly. He asked us about our living environment and helped us pick out what we need to get started. We got a feeder and some seeds. Back home, we started by hanging up a tube feeder with sunflower chips and sunflower seeds. For the first two weeks, we didn’t have any bird at all. Finally, there were a few house sparrows one morning. Then, a few house finches joined in. After a few weeks, there are so many birds eating on our feeder every day. However Bryan and I wanted to get some different birds, so we went back to the store and got another feeder.
Two weeks ago, we hanged up a finch feeder with Niger seed. Within a few days, we saw a couple of Lesser goldfinches. They are bright yellow and small. They sing nice songs. They are beautiful and cute. We were so excited about that. I can’t wait until Fall, because I heard there may be American Goldfinches. Woo hoo!
It is very nice to do bird watching at home. Bryan and I like to watch them while sitting on the couch and surfing the web. Our next door neighbor can also see the feeder and he said he loves seeing the birds flying back and forth. He likes to watch them while he is watching TV. It is a really fun thing to do. I am glad that we got the feeder and exploring with this new bird watching hobby.
Our feeder and some Lesser Goldfinches
A Lesser Goldfinch was bugging another one.
Want to identified a bird that you saw?
There are two really good sites that will help you. What Bird and All About Birds.
Want to learn about bird feeding?
Wild Birds Unlimited will teach you everything you need to know. They also have stores that sell bird feeders, bird baths, seeds and many more. If not, it is just fun to walk around their stores.
