Breakfast Buddies

We often get asked if we have any pets, since we live on acreage.  People are often surprised to find that we don't have any pets at all!  Neither of us have ever wanted to commit to the daily chores associated with having pets, and since we both have worked full time forever, it didn't seem fair getting animals and then leaving them at home all day by themselves.  This might change one day when we have children, but for now, it works for us.

Plus, we are so lucky to have so much wildlife in our yard anyway.  Every morning there are at least 50 ducks down by our dam, we have half a dozen water hens that roam the yard, plus we regularly have wallabies grazing on the lawns, and we have a resident kookaburra too.  It is pretty special!

Last Christmas, my lovely husband gave me a bird feeder, as I had previously mentioned that I wanted to attract more small wild birds to the yard.  We hung the feeder outside the kitchen window, and I often put old bread in there for the birds to feed on.  All year, this has only attracted minor birds, which are not the type of birds that I originally wanted to target, but I must admit I have become quite attached to the little guys!  They now hang on the feeder in the morning and wait for me to come out, and then when I am filling the tray with bread, a couple of brave ones come over and grab a piece and take off!

Last weekend, I baked some banana and raspberry muffins, which I didn't get around to freezing straight away, so a few days later, rather than throw them out, I thought I would put them in the bird feeder to see if they liked it.

After 24 hours, most of the muffins were still in the tray, so I was thinking the birds didn't like my baking!  But I was so thrilled to later see that some rainbow lorikeets were eating the muffins!  I guess it was the sweet fruit that attracted them!

And now, I am pleased to report that the rainbow lorikeets have been back each morning for the bread! At first they were really scared of us, and would fly away whenever we walked into the kitchen, but now they are getting much tamer, and this morning I was even able to go and sit outside and eat my breakfast while I admired them hanging in the feeder!  It seems that the lorikeets prefer to hang on the feeder and eat out of the tray, while the minor birds pinch a piece of bread and take it to the grass below and pick at it down there.

I am going to research some ideas of other types of food I can put out for them,  so that I keep attracting them to come back.  If you have any suggestions, I would love to hear them :)