The backyard of the house I recently bought was a dry red dirt bed of dead grass and weeds. The grass was revitalized but so scattered that additional grass seed was planted in bald areas. Some of this new grass has become established but the watering of the area has brought years of dormant weed seeds to germination as well. With the help of a gardener, the backyard is slowly being weeded and recently I planted more grass seed.

Most of the houses on my block seem to be host to a few pair of Java Sparrows which have found ideal nests in the round vent holes of the attics. You see a few pair out and about on a typical day.

The grass seed brings a few doves as well as a number of these Javas down for a meal. The other day, I saw a Java pulling up young grass shoots and nibbling off the tender roots. Uh oh!! The gardener had advised me that we needed "sacrificial" seeds on the surface for the birds but I thought the grass was safe once it sprouted!

I had a brilliant idea. I would buy bird seed at the store and scatter that for the birds so they would leave the grass be. Well this might have been a brilliant idea from a birds point of view. Within a couple days, the few local pair of Javas had been joined by a flock that may number over 100 and the group grows in size every day!! I decided to switch to a bird feeder located at the front of the house to pull the birds away from the back lawn. This large bird feeder can be emptied in a couple hours! I think I need to hire the neighbors cat to stand watch. It was fazed momentarily by a plastic Owl I had bought but the birds weren't!

Waiting in line for the feeder ( under the eve to the right, by the down spout):

Here is a group who couldn't fit in the line:

And some shots at the feeder itself:

Watching and listening to the disagreements as well as scuffles gives one an idea of where the term "pecking order" came from. While at one of the feeding stations, some of the Java's focus on grabbing as much seed as posible while a rain of seed falls to the ground for others waiting. Other birds spend their time at the station yelling at others in line and fighting them off.