This is a special guest post by our cat Goldilocks.  We call Goldy our resident ornithologist.  She spends most of her days at our windows, watching outside to see the birds there.  When she was younger, a call of “bird bird bird!” from anywhere in the house would bring her running.  Now she is training our kitten Whiskey in the beginnings of bird-watching…

Now, Whiskey, stop chasing after kitten toys and come sit in the window with me.  The outside world is full of wondrous things, like dragonflies and insects and birds.  The birds are the best.

Now the ones on the ground are called doves.  They don’t move much.  Be careful not to disturb them by moving too quickly in our window.  They are very skittish!  They like to eat the seed on the ground.  They’re not the greatest fliers…their wings rub together as they fly, and it sounds like they are saying “look out below!”

The big red ones are called cardinals.  They make nests in our neighborhood, so we get to see babies a couple times a year.  The bright red ones are the boys, the lighter red ones with bright beaks are the girls, and the ones with black beaks are the babies.  This summer I got to watch a baby learn to fly, right here from my window!  Isn’t their chirp exciting?  Listen for it, and come running to the window when you hear it.

The little red ones are called house finches.  I don’t understand why, because they don’t come into the house.  They sit for hours and hours on the tube feeder, eating and eating and eating.  And the people say that we cats are piggies!!  Although the finches are less piggy than the grackles.  The grackles are the black ones.  They like to fuss.  But we like them because they are harder to scare away.

The really pretty ones are the painted buntings.  For some reason, the people get really excited when these guys come in the wintertime.  Our mommy spent hours with her camera looking out the window with me last winter.  You know, Whiskey, I can teach you all about birds in one afternoon, but I can’t make you understand the people!