For those who enjoy birding but don’t always get a chance to do it, I observed something the other day that may be consoling.

Since my pregnancy with twins began, I became increasingly unable to do things, even simple ones like refill my birdfeeder. I was also unable to do any fall cleanup in my yard but had already planted all my summer flowers and vegetables before I had to retreat to the house. Last week I was sitting in my dining room and happened to notice lots of sparrows hopping around in the weeds in my backyard. I sat there and watched them a minute and realized that they were enjoying the seeds from the weeds that I hadn’t pulled. Oh, that made me feel so much better knowing that my laziness resulted in some food for my feathered friends.

Well, a few days later I heard the goldfinches in my backyard. Knowing I didn’t have anything out there for them I watched them to see where they were and what they were doing. Well, much to my surprise, they were flitting around in my neglected herb bed eating the seeds from my dead and overgrown basil! Ah, another triumph in the name of laziness!! It was interesting that the finches wanted nothing to do with the weed seeds and the sparrows wanted nothing to do with the basil seeds. Hmmm, the wonder of nature. This week the sparrows are still working on the weed seeds and I have seen the finches come in a few times but they are never both there at the same time.

I wanted to share this with you so hopefully for those who were too busy this winter or were unable, like me, to conciously feed the birds take solace in knowing that neglect isn’t always a bad thing! I definitely will remember this next fall when my twin girls keep me so busy that I bet I won’t be able to do any fall clean up again!

-Adria