Recipe for Delight

1 empty plastic juice or soda bottle
1 wooden chopstick
birdseed
wire

Poke the chopstick through the bottom of the bottle and out the other side. This is a perch. Cut small holes above each end of the stick in the bottle. Fill the bottle with birdseed. Attach feeder to a tree branch with the wire. Hang it near a window so you can see it well. Watch closely.

This was Liana's science project in her study of birds. (Flying Creatures of the Fifth Day.) Within an hour of hanging the feeder we had a flock of white-breasted nuthatches zipping around our huge lilac tree. (Yes, tree. It's almost as tall as the house!) Then we saw a bird I never in all my years have seen before--a tufted titmouse! The next day dozens of tiny black-capped chickadees arrived. The girls and I sat right under the tree on the deck for a good half-hour one sunny morning and still the birds came. They seem to have no fear of us. How enchanting they are! We are so much enjoying these beautiful, cheery creatures. And this is school? Liana is logging each bird in the chamois-covered explorer's journal we made.