August 17, 2004

We’ve made a few changes around the pond. I bought several small plants, which I hope to actually put into the ground soon, and also put up a new feeder on a pvc pipe. The feeder holds fruit and whatever I want to put in a small dish beneath the fruit holder. I could use jelly, but at present am putting in a gross concoction from the bird store called “Nuts ‘n Bugs,” which consists of ground-up flies and pecans, bound together with suet. Birds love it. They would probably be baffled by my love of ice cream.

Anyway, the plan is to attract mockingbirds, but so far only cactus wrens and finches seem interested. (I have also seen goldfinches drinking from the pond).

Yesterday I watched a male pyrrhuloxia bathe in the pond. He looked really scruffy when he was through. Just now a little sparrow is taking a dust bath next to the pond in a small hollow that the birds have created for themselves.

Among the new plants is a beautiful pink hibiscus that I hope not to kill. A chipmunk has been interested in it all day. He has eaten the stem-ends of fallen blossoms and keeps returning in hopes of being able to scale the pot and get to the still-blooming blossoms. I half-expect him to show up with a little ladder.