Birdwatching in the city

I put a bird feeder out on my fire escape earlier this month. For a while, the only thing it collected was snow.

Then, last Sunday, we saw some birds crowded around its little ledge. They ate all of the bird seed in three days - Wednesday evening, I came home to an empty bird feeder. So I refilled it.

Friday evening, it was empty again. I was going to wait until after the snowstorm to refill it again, but this morning, the birds sat on the fire escape railing, staring eagerly into my window.

So I refilled it again, and now I get to watch the snow swirling around while a bunch of hungry house sparrows snack on seeds as the feeder twirls in the wind. Kind of like a birdfeeder-go-round. I pulled out my Field Guide to Birds of North America and identified the males and females.

The cat, however, seems mostly uninterested.

Sensory overlap

Synesthesia: from the Ancient Greek σύν (syn), "together," and αἴσθησις (aisthēsis), "sensation"—is a neurologically-based condition in which stimulation of one sensory or cognitive pathway leads to automatic, involuntary experiences in a second sensory or cognitive pathway.


0 = clear      5 = black or navy blue 
1 = white     6 = orange
2 = yellow    7 = grey
3 = green     8 = maroon
4 = purple    9 = black


January =  white or vanilla sky (soft pale yellow and thin light blue)
February = deep plum
March = rusty orange
April = pale pink
May = deeper pink
June = sky blue
July = real blue, sometimes white
August = soft red
September = golden
October = dark grey 
November = orange
December = pine green