Participant Photo: A welcome guest

It’s been a harsh winter, even here in Tennessee, and the Bluebirds, many of which winter-over, were having a tough time. As a result, they began regularly visiting my feeders. I’d see them virtually every day at the feeders, so I decided to buy some dried mealworms for them, in hopes, even though dried, the mealworms would be a treat for them. The Bluebirds ignored the mealworms as far as I could tell; BUT one day I discovered a Northern Mockingbird, one of which had never visited one of my feeders before, had come and seemed to be gobbling those dried mealworms with great delight. I experimented by adding the mealworms to different tray feeders, and the Mockingbird followed the “trail of mealworms”, visiting that tray feeder that offered them. I’ve never had a Mockingbird near my home, so I built a special tray feeder for my front porch railing and, along with other seeds, always put in some mealworms…I’m hoping that the Mockingbird stakes out a territory near my home so that I can enjoy it’s exuberant, varied song.