I bought a bird feeder last year, and hung it up in my front yard. All told I had practically no takers, and despite being marketed as “squirrel proof,” which by and large it was, the stupid thing wasn’t watertight in the slightest so every time it so much as misted the seed would get wet and the whole thing would jam up.

I was doggedly attempting to unjam it the other day for the umpteenth and it just broke. Well, good riddance. I just marched right off to Printables and download this, and ran off two of them. Which is probably what I should have done in the first place.

It’s only been three days and I’ve already run through five one liter bottle fills of seed, which I feel I should point out exactly the same stuff I put in the old feeder that the birds wouldn’t touch with a ten foot pole. Already I’m looking at upgrading at least one of the 1L bottles to a 2L so I don’t have to trudge out there in the snow quite so often.

Anyway, the point of this diatribe is to say to expect a lot of through-the-window shots of birds to be forthcoming because suddenly we’re the most popular spot on the block. Several of these turned out a bit crap in the focus department because the glass in my double pane windows is, shall we say, not optically rigorous. This was also in between snow squalls yesterday afternoon so the lighting isn’t the best.

Nevertheless I captured this grackle amongst a horde of cowbirds, and as you can see he was quite perturbed about not having a seat at the table so here he is glaring pointedly from the top of the shepherd’s hook. Full size here.