A Flock of Conservatives

In our den we have two bird feeders stuck to the windows with those little rubber stopper things. Up until yesterday I kept one full of sunflower seed and the other one full of safflower seed.

I like to have safflower seed available because the squirrels turn their noses up at it. They prefer sunflower seed.

Up until yesterday I would watch the same little birds, same breeds fly on the safflower feeder, fly off, then stop by the sunflower feeder and grab himself a sunflower, then fly to the nearest limb. Break open the seed like cracking a nut. Sometimes it is quiet a job, they have to beat the seed against a limb, holding it with their beak. They wouldn’t have it any other way, it is their instinct.

I have four feeders of sunflower seed in the yard, so was one really needed in front of the window? The same birds came to one as the other, so it was not like we were losing watching a bird species or anything.

Yesterday I loaded both window feeders with safflower seed.

The little birds didn’t know quiet how to take that. They would fly on the edge of safflower seed and grab a seed or two, then leap over to the other one where the sunflower seeds were, looked confused a second, then fly away. They expected sunflower seed there. The feeder that did not change, the seed is going down quicker than the one that changed.

Apparently they don’t like change. A flock of conservatives.