Baited Birds.

The first weekend in December I was over at my mother in law's place helping her bake cookies for a cancer walk fundraiser. The day before a family friend and one of her sisters had been over helping with the same task. They had gotten in the habit of opening the bags of flour, cornstarch and sugar outdoors to reduce the mess inside. Mona's sister Diane had noticed how many birds were outback, and later when they had a flubbed batch she broke up the cookies and took them out for the winged beggars.

On Sunday when I went by there must have been one hundred to one hundred twenty birds in the back yard, taking turns landing on the utility bench and feasting on the frozen flour and checking for cookie pieces. They waited all day, but to our credit, no batches of shortbread were harmed in the making of this image.