Little Birdy Fast Food

The birds born this spring are all teenagers now. The young purple martins too fuzzy still for iridescence, the cardinals still drab and clumsy, the blue jays looking fresh and crisp, but without thier full 'fledged' crest on top. I have a feeding platform (a peice of old ply set on top of two rickety sawhorses) right outside my studio window where I use the computer. The momma birds are bringing the teenagers over to the mound of birdseed I try to keep replenished. I think the parent birds look on my feeding platform as a sort of McDonalds. The youngsters still shake and cry with mouths open, as the moms plop seeds in thier maws. Every once in a while the youngsters will get into a territorial dispute, and the moms will fly away leaving them to fend for themselves. I'm not the only one in the family with this idea. Below is a picture of the birdfeeder my Dad built, for his land up in Gaylord.