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When I am sitting on my patio, watching the activity in my corner garden, I feel like I am in the middle of the woods sitting beside a babbling brook. I have a medium fountain that produces a nice water sound, a bird bath, several medium pine trees just outside the fence, a tube feeder with niger seed for the gold finches, a platform feeder with a nut and fruit mix for the larger birds such as woodpeckers, cardinals and blue jays, a large hopper feeder filled with a mix of sunflower seeds, millet, corn and peanuts, this keeps the small birds such as finches, sparrows, chickadees and wrens very happy. I also have a number of mourning doves that seem to feed on just about anything and several small hummingbird feeders hanging around the border of the patio. There are also some unwinged creatures such as bunnies and squirrel that seem to frequent the area quite regularly. I know some folks are really bothered by squirrels but the visitors to my yard seem quite content picking up fallen peanuts from the hopper feeds. The bunnies are also my friend since they feast on the sprouts that constantly appear from the dropped millet and sunflower seeds. I read an article about the perfect environment for bird watching consists of water, food and shelter. It is so true; I am just amazed at the level of activity of these small creatures. They flit from the trees, to the fountain, to the birdbath to the feeders. They chirp to their mates, the young birds that look almost as big as the mother bird, sit, flap their wings and squawk until the mother birds bring them some food. The mourning doves are always in pairs, strutting around the fountain and the song bird serenade me on a regular basis. The gold finches are so tiny and so beautiful and I am so happy when an occasional blue bird frequents the platform feeder. I also have a platform feeder where I place suet occasionally but the flock of grackles is so large and so noisy that I temporarily stopped stocking that feeder. They ate two cakes of suet in one day!! It's wonderful that for the cost of a few bags of bird seed, I have regular entertainment every time I sit out on the patio. Try it; I'm sure you will like it. The author, Linda Lupold owns The Unique Home and Garden Shoppe
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