Beginner’s luck at hand feeding a chickadee

Beginner’s luck at hand feeding a chickadee

On a whim of the moment, I put some black-oil sunflower seeds in my right hand and held them out with the hope that a black-capped chickadee might take them. I stood between a bird feeder and a hemlock tree. Two chickadees darted through the air and landed in the hemlock. This is how they always approach the feeder. They never fly directly to it. They always stop in the hemlock first, look for an opening, then perch for a second or two on the fe…