I confess I've never paid much attention to birds in Framingham except noting the huge numbers that congregate on the telephone wires at the lights on Rt. 30 and the Burr St. Extention by Midway Motors.

My mother, on the other hand, has several bird feeders and enjoys the variety of birds that visit her yard in Maynard.  She has a bird feeder that sticks onto a window with suction cups.  If you are patient and slow moving, you can see many of the birds up close.  The more I saw the birds this past summer, the more interested I became.

For my birthday my mother and sister gave me a window birdfeeder like my mothers and a bag of sunflower birdseed.  Mom told me it sometimes takes a while for the birds to find the feeder.  I think it was late October that I filled it and scattered seed on the ground.  Nothing.  I also didn't see that many birds in the yard.

Weeks went by.  I added some popcorn and spread  more seed on the ground.  Nothing.  Although the seed on the ground disappeared.

I spread more seed and put some on the window sill.  Nothing.  My mother gave me a fake cardinal which is about like size.  She said that putting red by the feeder can help, as well as having a decoy.

Finally, about three weeks ago a chickadee appeared, grabbed a seed, and flew off.  He came back again a few minutes later.  My Marine son, home for the holidays even got excited.  He called the bird the scout.

Intermittently a chickadee has since appeared and helped himself.

This morning I saw a chickadee and then my other son said, hey, there's a robin in the side yard.  Actually there were four, going from tree branch to tree branch on the other side of the house from the feeder.  I didn't think that robins appeared until the warm weather in April, but there they were.

I wandered back to the room with the birdfeeder and within a half hour saw  robins going for seed on the ground that I had scattered while the chickadee made several runs at the feeder and the windowsill.  Meanwhile, I also saw a woodpecker, a bluejay, and some grayish birds, starlings?,  grackles? 

Then all the birds left the scene for a couple of hours. 

The grayish ones, about the size of a robin, as well as a few robins, just reappeared and swooped in and pecked at the seeds on the ground as well as at the dirt and mulch showing through the snow around the foundations of my and my neighbor's houses.  I take care to move very slowly as I sit and type and watch.