We have friends (duck hunters) who can identify blue wing teal from pintails from widgeons from … well, from 300 yards on the wing.

We have birders in our Virginia Master Naturalist group who participate in the major bird counts, backyard bird counts and bird banding — and can identify 50 different birds by calls alone. Not us. We’re rank amateurs.

We don’t do much with birds in the summer except view and appreciate them casually. But in winter — with leaves off the trees, with natural bird food scarce, with little to do outside, save walking — we feed the birds and observe their ways. Fascinating stuff!

This is what we feed with, and who responds:

4Suet cakes (on a tree) — Downy woodpeckers, red-bellied woodpeckers, nuthatches and really small wrens, sparrows and so on.

4Nuts (peanuts, pecans on a bench under a tree) — Blue Jays and tufted titmice.

4Black oil sunflower seeds (in “cage” feeders) — Goldfinches (in various greens, going to gold), chickadees (Carolina or black-capped?), grossbeaks, tufted titmice, kingbirds, catbirds/mockingbirds, juncos, wrens, sparrows and the like on the deck and on the feeder.

Then there is the lake 100 yards from the feeders and windows. There are always five or 10 species of ducks to view: mergansers (with or without hoods), mallards, teal, black ducks. They are less common, as the cormorants seem to be taking over. But the cormorants seem to be targeted this year by two adult and two juvenile bald eagles.

Which upsets the great blue herons, which “GRONK” and disturb the kingfishers and occasional pileated woodpeckers in the trees by the lake, which … !

It’s a constant show. Mother Nature at her most diverse.

Some of the odd sights we’ve seen:

4Female mallards “stuck” on branches 60 feet up in a tree, unsure of how to launch (three times)

4An adult bald eagle training a young’un how to land in and dive from a tree branch (a real comedy routine)

4Three pileated woodpeckers absolutely dancing around a tree trunk for 90 minutes (two males and one female? Reverse?)

4About 100 cedar waxwings absolutely stripping a holly tree of its berries within a couple of hours. Really. It’s a show.

One caveat — the squirrels. Suet goes in steel grid feeders; sunflower seeds go into steel grid feeders; nuts on benches are forfeit. They’ll wipe them out in two hours. But they, too, need a little extra food, even if they get one seed at a time, a bit of suet, a few nuts. All of God’s critters need to eat.

If you share some seeds or nuts with them they will give you hours of enjoyment. Anyone can do it. If you have a backyard window, you can contribute. Anyone can also become a Master Naturalist.

Training classes for new members of the Historic Southside Chapter of the Virginia Master Naturalists will begin with a Jan. 20 meet-and greet at the Isle of Wight Extension Office, where classes will take place the first and third Tuesdays through May 5. There will be several Saturday field trips.

The fee for the classes covers the cost of about a half-dozen field guides and field trip expenses. Call 365-6262 for registration information.