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A Feast Awaiting The Visitors

Ever since we moved to the farm, I’ve wanted to set out our housewarming gift, a cedar bird feeder. I wanted to see blue jays, gold finches, rose-colored grosbeaks, and cardinals fly in to eat. As a child, I’d watch for these birds. All that living color.

Denise said that, with bird feeders, you get to see varieties of birds lighting up your yard.

“What kind should I get?” I asked.

“A Yankee Droll, because they know how to set them up. Fill it with thistle seed,” she said.

“What about squirrels?” (We call our one squirrel Stub Tail.)

“Use safflower seeds, because they don’t like them.”

I rushed out to buy a thistle bird feeder, surprised by the tiny holes. I chattered to the clerk, excited to try this.

I spilled thistle and safflower on the kitchen table as I filled my feeders. I hung them in the black walnut and the maple opposite our kitchen window.

I looked.  Nothing. No birds. All I’ve seen is light flashing off the Plexiglass at night.

Bruce says we don’t have birds. Denise says they will come. I don’t know. But these quiet bird feeders remind me of banquets laid out on tables, and how we don’t notice them waiting.

Maybe we are too distracted by our troubled world to take a bite of goodness.

I’m Katie Andraski, and that’s my perspective.

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