Bird Feeder — By Tommy Purser

Did I tell y’all about the Christmas present
my oldest offspring gave me?
Well, if I did, listen up (or read up) I’m
fixin’ to tell you again (“fixin’ ”, now there’s
a Southern word that makes absolutley no
sense to those unfamiliar with Southern dialect.
To say I’m fixin’ to do something means
I’m gettin’ ready to do it right soon. Ex: I’m
fixin’ to go to work.)
But, anyway, my oldest daughter gave me,
last Christmas, a bird feeder with a camera
on it so I can watch videos of the different
birds that visit the feeder.
I put the thing up in my backyard and I’ve
seen all manners of birds, big and small but
mostly small. I have videos of finches, tufted
titmouses (or is it tufted titmice?), cardinals,
wrens, woodpeckers, bluejays, etc.
Some of the birds, mostly the finches,
arrive at the feeding trough with attitudes.
Once settled in to eat, they don’t want any
other birds anywhere close to them. So, they
fight them off, threaten to peck them, with
much screeching and fluttering of wings.

Bluejays, I’ve discovered, are just downright
bullies. They’re a lot bigger than the finches
and wrens and, hence, they can push their
weight around with great effectiveness.
They don’t have to threaten their smaller
counterparts because, it appears, their sheer
size makes smaller birds flutter away with
great alarm when the bluejays arrive.
I watched one time when a bluejay arrived
at the feeder to find a woodpecker grazing
away at the variety of seeds before him. The
bluejay squawked in an aggravated tone,
raised his/her wings menacingly and threatened
to peck the woodpecker.
The woodpecker, however, was equal in
size to or larger than the bluejay and would
have none of it. The woodpecker, whose
beak was larger and longer than the bluejay’s,
pecked back and the bluejay scrambled to
safety.
I guess that’s kinda what’s meant by “pecking
order.”
Anyway, my new birdfeeder was an entertaining
gift which I have enjoyed immensely.