Feeding the Chickadees

 Yesterday, Manon and I met my dad at the Upper Canada Migratory Bird Sanctuary down near Morrisburg. We arrived in time for the 2:30 p.m. feeding of the Canada Geese. It is fun to see thousands of geese feeding at the same time. The feedings continue until the end of October, so you can still go.

But the really cool thing was when we took a walk on the boardwalk trail through the wetlands.

We were swarmed by little black-capped chickadees. It's like they knew that Manon and I had supported them in the campaign to name them Ottawa's unofficial bird.

It seems people are allowed to feed the birds. (There are no signs saying you can't and nothing about it on the website.) We passed several groups of people offering bird seed to the chickadees.

Then we came to a group that was offering black sunflower seeds. And a man with them offered us seeds so we could try it.

These tiny little birds were landing right on our hands and taking the seeds. The birds are so light you can barely feel them.

The very kind man with the seeds explained that he thinks the black sunflower seeds work particularly well because they contrasts well with skin colour and the birds can see them better.

His friend was also able to tell us that the other birds with a blueish colour that that were around but a bit more shy than the chickadees were nuthatches.