One of the most exciting garden gifts you could give anyone in our wonderfully-wooded Morris County area — or in the mountainous areas or shoretowns of New Jersey — is a pretty birdfeeder. We love ours, a singular bronze feeder that hangs from a sturdy branch of our front yard willow tree, right in front of our picture window. At this very moment, I’m looking outside as a duo of cardinals flit from peg to peg on it, getting a hearty winter’s meal of birdseed specially formulated to attract more cardinals to our yard. And it works. We have seen far more of those gorgeous, vibrant-red male cardinals and their lovely ladies since we picked up Cardinal-favorite birdseed.
When my sister gave us a birdfeeder as a bridal shower gift, we had no idea we were going to fall in love with birdwatching, and now that we’re passionate spotters of scarlet tanagers, juncos, finches, and sparrows, among so many others, we’ve joined the more than 50 million Americans who say that birdwatching is a top hobby of theirs, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
So with our birdfeeder in place, consistently and reliably re-filled with The Farm’s varieties of the crunchy goodies our local birds love so much, we keep a bird identification guidebook – organized by bird color – right by our picture window. And every so often, one of us will jump up, flip through the book and call out the name of the bird with all the excitement of a child on Christmas, delighted by a surprise gift.
It’s a wonderful part of our world…
If you don’t have a birdfeeder, you’re missing the show! So pick up a pretty one for yourself, as well as a birdfeeder for anyone with a special event coming up. When you give a birdfeeder as a gift, you give the recipient endless hours of excitement, discovery, a new appreciation of how beautiful our own neighborhoods are, and kids develop a passion for birdwatching, too.
