Do you like to bird watch? Let me tell you about the Wren my mother sent.

By Michele Stillwell, Director of Marketing and Accounting at MEDiAHEAD

I absolutely love bird watching and feed the birds all year round. It’s really cool to see what kinds of birds come in the winter vs. the summer. My favorite bird is the hummingbird. Do you know that hummingbirds travel 4,000 miles and actually spend the winter in southern Mexico? Amazing birds… and they just fascinate me.

Birds spend most of the fall migrating, and several species travel from one state to another, North to South, even from the North Pole to the South Pole!

My husband and I spend lots of time putting out seed, peanuts and suet for all the birds in our area, especially this time of year when it’s so cold and food is scarce. On any given day in the winter, we have Cardinals, Blue Jays, Flicker, Red Belly, Downy, Hairy, Junko, Carolina Wren, Finches, Tufted Titmouse, Nuthatch, Sparrows, Chickadees and so many more.

In the summer, we feed the Baltimore Oriole, and of course the little Hummingbirds. We get such a variety of birds in the summer as well.

We also have a Kestrel that likes to sit in our neighbor’s tree, and hunt’s for some of our birds occasionally. This Kestrel will sometimes land right on top of our bird feeder and just sit there. They are so beautiful. It’s really weird because the other birds seem to know he’s around, and they all just disappear when he is near.

I love to take trips to go bird watching.

My family usually goes with me, we take the binoculars and our Missouri bird book. We’ve identified several birds that are just so cool. It really depends on where you go, and you really have to look pretty hard to find them. When you do find a rare bird, it’s fun to write them down and see how many you’ve identified. Another form of hide and seek.

Just last week, my husband and I went to Smithville lake on Saturday and watched about 20 to 30 Bald Eagles fly over the lake. It was amazing! Eagles are the most majestic bird ever. I had no idea there were so many at Smithville. Just incredible! I could have sat there all day long.

I had the most incredible conversation with my mother before she passed away.

I actually had several conversations with her, but the one that stays in my heart is that I asked her to send me a sign when I’m sad and thinking of her. She asked me what kind of sign I wanted. I said, “send me a little bird to make me smile and be happy.”

My mom had birds all the time at her house and she also had lots of bird houses. She had a little Carolina Wren build a nest inside one of her bird houses and they would have babies every year. I’ve never had a Wren show up at my house. I don’t have a bird house, I just have bird feeders.

Ever since my mom has passed, I’ve had a little Carolina Wren that shows up and sits on my deck. Occasionally she will eat out of my feeder, but she just seems to show up when I need her the most. Hi mom.

Birds are amazing and a wonderful gift from above.