Another Bird Haven

Our cut Christmas tree still looked lovely after the holiday season and I hated to relegate it to the trash, so my husband obligingly moved it amidst our pepper tree and shrubs outside our study window. Nestled among our “living” plants, it not only looked natural, but when early morning dew settled on its branches,

we could smell the fresh perfume of pine. I hung a cylindrical feeder filled with Scotts Songbird Selection Western Bird Blend (shopping for bird seed, its contents looked delicious enough for me to eat, so why wouldn’t it attract our songbirds?) and a decorative ceramic saucer for water on a couple of the sturdier branches. Because our evenings have been particularly chilly and often rainy, I added a suet feeder to give them more sustenance in their diet. With lint collected from my dryer, I recycled the fuzzy flotsam into balls so that the birds could pick the bits to line their nests. On my walks around the neighborhood, I gathered some pinecones, “schmeared” them with peanut butter, rolled them in bird seed and festooned the branches with my home-made ornaments. Appreciative populations of scrub jays, robins, phainopeplas, sparrows, towhees, wrentits and bushtits flit in and out of our repurposed Christmas tree, chirping merrily and enjoying their bird buffet. Best of all, their company helps make my time spent at my desk working, so much more enjoyable because they help bring the beauty and joy of the outdoor garden indoors.