Good thing Costco carries bird feed in really big bags, because these little guys can Eat. Had a pretty good sized flock of house finches here for quite a while, but we were gone for week and when we came back they had all disappeared, along with the mourning doves and most of the nice sparrows. There's been a pretty steady supply of HOSP still coming out, and the DRST have been doing their job at keeping them contained, and the yard was eerily quite for a week or so.
And then about a hundred dark eyed juncos showed up, along with another batch of different types of sparrows. They really cleaned up around the feeders, and I gave them an extra bit of food on the deck when the (evil) snow appeared. While watching them I kept seeing one little fellow with no tail feathers (we named him Notar, for NO TAil Rotor) that would just sit and eat. Turns out he also has one lame foot, and though he seems to fly pretty good he can't hop very well.
So it looks like the rest of his flock has taken off for warmer weather now, and he's the only one we've seen at the feed for a few days. I assume he probably can't make the flight south with no tail, and was wondering if there was anything we could do for him to help him through the winter? He'll have plenty of food and water, and we wonder if we should try to do more or just let nature run it's course?
