Birds!

Listening to and seeing birds offers proven mental health benefits, reducing anxiety, stress, and paranoia while enhancing mood.

In early February, I put up a bird feeder that I got for my birthday – it’s one of those ones that has a camera in it so you can login and watch the birds dig through the seeds, finding the ones they like best. Every day since, there has been a feeding frenzy of redpolls, red breasted nuthatches, chickadees, Steller’s jays, European starlings, magpies and the occasional squirrel.

We’ve also been visited by Bohemian Waxwings as they forage for the fermented fruit of our neighbors’ apple tree. Unfortunately, one such bird got a little too tipsy and crashed into our window, despite us having placed anti-bird-crash stickers to help them avoid it.

Here is a collection of all the birds that have visited our back yard this winter.

I’ve also been going down to the Campbell Creek trail to get some steps and enjoy a bit of nature. I’ve seen lots of birds and animals, even during the coldest winter months. Here is a small collection of the birds I have seen along the trail.