Okay, no more teasing about global warming to explain our somewhat atypical January weather. According to our weather folks, here in the Milwaukee area, our snowfall amounts for the month and the season are down because we are experiencing an El Nino winter and this current weather pattern fits previous El Nino winters we’ve had in the Milwaukee area. Hey, I want to be accurate and scientific, after all.
Of course, the birds in my backyard could care less about the reasons for the weather; they just adapt or perish, as do all creatures and, given the amount of food that disappears from the feeders on a daily basis, I’d say they are adapting quite well. I don’t mind at all; watching birds at the feeder is the best therapy I know for beating the winter blues.
In fact, I was talking to another gal who has been feeding birds for years and she said she read a report that putting up bird feeders and watching birds has become a popular therapy at many assisted living homes, rehab facilities and so on. I find it interesting that so many of us that are having problems or issues, of one sort or another, can so easily relate to birds, even when we are having difficulties of the human kind. I am speaking, now, for myself, because I have spent many an hour at the kitchen table, bird watching, bird feeder style, when I have been down, myself and it does help. I also know several people who have started feeding birds as therapy while recovering from a major health crisis and they swear by it, even though they still don’t know one species from the next.
I strongly urge you to give bird feeding a try if you know of someone in this predicament. Feeding birds is one of the very best ways to bring nature into the life of someone who is homebound, for one reason or another. Feeding birds is a relatively inexpensive hobby and you don’t even need binoculars to watch the action, though watching the birds through a binocular certainly adds to the fun. Then, too, nearly any binocular will work for watching birds at a feeder. You do not need a special birding binocular to follow the action.