By Mary Reid Barrow

Birds don’t belly up to the bar, but they flock in great numbers to imbibe at the buffets with the best water bars.

My North End neighbor Jenny Johnson has a big brewery going, serving up unfrozen nectar for her hummingbirds and also keeping all the birds who run up a big water tab well lubricated with the big bird bath in the photo.

Sue Bowser at the North End became really aware of the thirst for the best bar drink in town when she noted a flock of birds sipping what she assumed was melting snow running down the sunny side of her roof. She is going to start putting pans of unfrozen water out for the birds.

“Water is the number one way to attract birds,” said Tyler Lohman, Wild Birds Unlimited Store Support Manager, “and it is vital for their survival and for the survival of other wildlife too.”

 

 

 

 

 

Birds of all ages and taste buds will be happy with the Brent James Buffet on the Lynnhaven River.

Brent, LRNow’s Oyster Restoration Coordinator, serves up six different feeder menus.

“I feed mealworms, sunflower seeds, and two mixes, one with seeds and nuts and one with suet and seeds.” Brent said.

Even with the winter dining crowds, patrons are very polite. Except for bossy mockingbirds, most birds take turns, standing patiently in the buffet line.

“The tufted titmice and the Carolina chickadees travel to feeders together but never alight on them at the same moment,” he said. “But there is almost a 100% correlation between both of them following one after the other.

“The name for this behavior is ‘Foraging Symbiosis’.”

This photo said it all for Nancy Gorry in the Kings Grant area.

“They’ve made it through the worst,” she said.

Nancy was relieved to see this hummer at her nectar bar after Sunday’s snowstorm.

Gale Bryant was was even relieved to see a bar fight break out between two feisty birds that sparred with one another over the feeder after the snowstorm.

On the other hand, Gale had a disturbing experience with her hummers last Wednesday.

“Both were on top of my feeder together, one completely laid out and not moving, the other sitting up and snuggled against the one laying down,” Gale said. “I watched with heartbreak for a couple of minutes with no change.”

Her husband went out to the feeder to check and the birds flew off. Gale knew that hummers go into a state of torpor at night when their bodies shut down and maybe this event was due to the cold.

All I could think of was to tell her what happened to me about a decade ago. During spring hummer migration, I found a live bird down on the road in front of the house. I picked it up and the only thing I could think of to do was poke its little beak in my feeder. Lo and behold, it drank and took off. Who knows if that extra burst of energy was all it needed or if there was something more serious going on and it managed to fly away in fear.

The weather is warming up but the birds will be extra hungry so keep those buffets and bars well supplied.

As luck would have it, if your buffet supplies are running low, Wild Birds Unlimited is holding a15% off sale (20% for members) on all seeds for the next two weeks.