Maple Ridge is an exemplary retirement home where the needs and desires of residents are thr primary concern. So when I broached the idea of a bird feeder to our activities director, she welcomed it. So I enlisted a tray for seeds and a glass tube for niger the help of a good friend and birder Terence Philippe and he took it on. We now have a 2-part feeder with Niger, sunflwer seeds and assorted other goodies on a pole in the yard below a bank of windows that provide excellent viewing. I have a pair of binocs on my walker and pause to check out the feeder on the way to meals.
When I arrived on August 4, 2020, there were few birds around. Flocks of Cedar Waxwings were the only ‘specials’. There is a small patch of fenced-dead rushes just below my bedroom window that hosts a Red-winged Blackbird colony that had just finished nesting.
I wanted a bird feeder and in April I got one, thanks to my good friend Terence Philippe. He put together a pole and squirrel baffle from Northwest Nature Shop with some hangers and trays from my garden and pounded a pole in place next to the fence under the windows in the hall. It was immediately visited by Golden-crowned Sparrows and within a few days by 12 more species:
Mourning Dove
Collared Dove
Red-winged Blackbird
Brewer’s Blackbird
European Starling
Cedar Waxwing
American Crow
Northern Flicker
Golden-crowned Sparrow
White-crowned Sparrow
Spotted Towhee
House Sparrow
Dark-eyed Junco
Several of our attendants (Tasheena George, Daniel Konecky, Michael Wilson) took on the task of keeping it filled, and now I stop every time I pass it to check out the feeding population.
I take enormous pleasure in this small addition to our view.
