After completely changing the feeder scene yesterday (removal of regular tray, seeds and cornmeal mix), I wanted to see how long it would take before the juncos, chickadees and lone wren recognized a new food form (the spreadable suet mentioned a couple of posts back). Of course this was set on different seasonal props.

The spritely wren made hungry sounds, and dug in shortly after I left the table. Within the hour, the juncos were cautiously trying out the new treat. The chickadees, used to a quick fly-in-and-out, were slower, but also caught on.

I put a fresh poinsettia bloom on the hummingbird’s round, saucer-shaped feeder about an hour ago. Looked very festive. Sparky flew in, checked it out, took off. He did this several times even though I left a feeder hole prominently accessible. The last two times he checked, he came over to the window where I work, and hovered. I told him to figure it out. Perhaps in a couple of hours, when he is good and hungry, I’ll present the small hand-held feeder. He gave it a serious look the last time I held it out, but then he had all the feeder holes open.

Just now, he flew by his old feeder location under the roof overhang and set the wire hanger to swinging back and forth. He’s pretty ticked off. I’ll probably relent and remove the offending poinsettia.