Signs of spring....................

..............traffic picking up on the 4-lane (tourist season returns), motorcycles heading to "The Dragon" (318 curves in 11 minutes) or the gently winding road that with curves through the Nantahala Forest, hummingbird feeders popping up on the shelves at local hardware stores, while yellow and white daffodils and jonquils burst open along the road and throughout the forest.  I've been checking the hummingbird reporting site to follow their progress up the Florida panhandle toward western NC.  Not many reported sightings yet but my feeders are clean and ready to nourish those weary little visitors when they arrive.

This is Gerry Atric.  It visits our feeders daily, especially this make-shift pie-tin feeder that hangs at my kitchen window.  This old sparrow looks disheveled.  It doesn't preen itself.  Feathers go every which way and it's always puffed up with a very poor posture.  The old bird sits for hours nibbling and rarely allows any other birds to feed at the same time.

The titmice and the chickadees stage on the wrought iron hook above the feeder and on the window screen waiting for the right moment to dive down, grab a peanut or pistachio nut, and make a quick escape before the old codger gets defensive with them. 

The only bird that can land at the feeder without catching geriatric wrath is the awesome cardinal.

No birds mess with the cardinals.  

I just happened to be at the kitchen window with my iphone snapping a picture of the old bedraggled  bird, when the cardinal arrived.  It's difficult to get close-ups of the beautiful redbirds because they are very cautious and fly away at the slightest motion.  While the cardinal feasted, the old sparrow never moved.  We are so amused  by the avian antics observed here.  These silly birds have such personalities.  When I go outside and approach the geriatric sparrow, it waits until I am about two feet away before it flees.  It reminds us of a crotchety old person who has been let out of the nursing home on the senior bus to go to a buffet.