The first lesson I learned about bird watching and bird feeders was the older you get, the more you enjoy sitting around watching the birds appreciate the feeder.

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I even read news stories about them. So when a graduate of our Holland College journalism program, Thinh Nguyen, did a story about bird feeders, I nodded in agreement while reading the quote from Jenson Edwards of the Nature Conservancy of Canada.

“So if you’re looking for chickadees or nuthatches, then maybe sunflower seeds are the way to go. But other birds might prefer different types of nutrition.”

Yup to the first part. Chickadees and nuthatches love sunflower seeds.

Not so much to the second part. Because the second lesson I learned was you can’t just feed the cute little birds. Woodpeckers are definitely big fans of the oil-rich snacks. Ditto blue jays. And squirrels.

And the third lesson I learned about bird watching is it’s really about squirrel watching.

Now woodpeckers are cute. The redheaded thing and the knock-knock-knock. And they’re not greedy. They eat and take off. No problem.

Blue jays are pretty too, but they’re four times the size of the little guys and they know it. They throw their........

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