[mou] Awesome backyard cornucopia

[Thomas Maiello]

Been using "cornucopia" a bit much lately but it so fits the bird  
bounty that I am easily feasting on in the feeders and on the ground  
below just outside my office window.  Today in about a 15 minute  
period I had a White-crowned Sparrow, a Lincoln's Sparrow, a White- 
throated Sparrow, a Chipping Sparrow, House Sparrows, a Swainson's  
Thrush, a Robin, Morning Doves, a Brown Thrasher, a Cardinal,  
Chickadees, House Finches, Downy Woodpeckers,  and a Grackle - all  
within 6 feet of me on the other side of a mere window screen.

The interactions have been a blast on which ones don't seem to care  
who is there, which ones do and to whom, and which ones take action  
or are compliant or dominant simply by being present.  Size doesn't  
always matter.

The opportunity to compare size, markings and behavior of the  
sparrows has been tantalizing.  For someone who has held that all  
sparrows are simply variations of the same brown dappled birds, I  
have seen the feathers!  Hallelujah!!

Awesome to be able to view the thrushes together.

Some interactions are worth noting - most significant was my Brown  
Thrasher standing in the midst of the tangle of birds and having a  
male Robin try to assert aggressive dominance over some of the  
smaller feather-ites.  The Brown Thrasher simply hopped over and  
plucked a single feather from the robin's back with much birdie  
shreeking and alarmed chirping from the fleeing robin.  The thrasher  
then went about with the single feather, scrapping it on sticks and  
branches and the ground as if to wave an all clear to every one else.  
I felt a twinge of glee when I realized it was the same robin which  
has been emptying my meal worm feeder as of late.  The robin only  
took a brief respite from the beaked gathering and rejoined the  
feeding without a bit of reaction from anyone.  Then the steadfast  
Mourning Dove jabbed at the suddenly frisky thrasher and seemingly  
put it in its place of humble birdery.

All in all a banner day up here in the middle of the blue collar  
burbs south of Blaine and just north of Fridley.  (music fades in)  
Islands in the stream, that is what we are (music swells and the  
camera pulls away for a pull away shot showing the shrinking yard and  
rising into the sky to look down on an eagle soaring overhead) No one  
in between, how can we be wrong (music begins to fade ) Sail away  
with me to another world, and we rely on each other ah-ah.

Thomas Maiello
Spring Lake Park