Black-capped chickadees are hungry, precocious little things that are easily tamed. Many a hunter has a story of a friendly chickadee dropping down onto his rifle to check him out, and photos of chickadees on photographers’ lenses are not uncommon. Our local park here in Rochester, NY (Mendon Ponds Park) has a songbird trail where chickadees, titmice, and even nuthatches gather to eat from the hands of chubby-palmed children and wistful adults.
We visited Saturday in order to get the family outdoors on the first sunny day we’d had in a long time.
Why stop at the hand? thought my husband, and offered his balding pate as a serving platter of black oil sunflower seeds.
"Screw the bright light, I'm going in for a landing. Those black-oil seeds are MINE."
"Well, this pad is a bit slippery but a few fast wing beats ought to keep me upright."
"Dang, this takes some fancy footwork, but lemme at those seeds!"
"I need a break."
"It's MY turn! Dude, why didn't you tell me about those porcelain tiles!"
"Criminy, how did you gain traction on this thing!"
"I'm starting to think the net energy gain from this meal will be ZERO!"
"Dude! I got the secret. Just hold onto the bristly gray blades and you're ON!"
"Yeah, let these gray spikes do the work."
"Enough. I'm outta here!"
"And we're off!"
Thanks to my good-natured husband for this post. Before writing, I asked him, “Would you mind if I made some bald jokes when I posted this?”
“As long as they’re funny.”
“So my bad jokes would offend you as bald person?”
Channeling his best Seinfeld, he replied, “Heck no, they’d offend me as a funny person!”
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Oh what a fabulous post! LOVE it!
Thanks, Kerri! You can tell I had fun with that one!
Laura
Paul *is* a good sport. And *infinitely* funnier than most of the people I know.
Laura, that is awesome!! Great pics, and great captions!! How you were able to capture those birds is unbelieveable.!!!
And to Paul, what a guy!!
Awesome photos Laura! and a very cooperative husband!
I love it! Birds in LA are never friendly like this. We had a problem with people feeding coyotes, however…
Hi Donna,
Tiny pockets of tame birds aren’t that unusual. Usually takes one persistent person, or a park entity, to get one started.
So you’re a cartoonist? I have an idea for a birding cartoon that I want to see come to life, so I’m glad Amy introduced us. I wasn’t thinking of going the route of a fully commissioned cartoon, but if you want to chat, my email is laurakamms [at] gmail.com. One never knows!
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