We plant a “bunch” of sunflowers in our garden. We enjoy insect activity around the blooming heads in midsummer and later, after pollination and seed formation, the bird activity too.

Bumble bees, honey bees, and a variety of butterflies swarm the flowering heads. That is only half of our garden entertainment.

By late July and early August the local contingent of goldfinches finds the ripening heads and the word is out.

When I walk to the garden, I may scatter a half dozen from the heads. They love the fat rich seeds and greedily glean almost every seed in a matter of a few days. Sometimes black-capped chickadees and tufted titmice are there competing for feeding spots on the sunflower heads.

Closer to dark, I regularly find cardinals enjoying the seeds too.

In planning for this column I wanted to include the rose-breasted grosbeaks.

The past few summers, even with the dense foliage, I was able to find the grosbeaks feasting on some wild cherry trees in one of my favorite birding areas. I assumed their “gross beaks” were being utilized to get to the cherry pit.

However, I’ve discovered that the cherry pits contain cyanide and if birds or chipmunk sized animals ate a number, it would kill them. I learn something every day.

But my favorite seed eater is the black-capped chickadee. If you pay attention to the chickadees as they feed it may surprise you. They grab a sunflower seed, fly, sometimes 40 or 50 yards to alight on a branch. Here they hold onto the hull with their feet, peck repeatedly and eventually get the reward, the kernel.

In a second or two they fly back to the feeder, grab another, and the process repeats over and over. I can’t help but wonder how many calories they “burn” making those long flights. I guess the caloric content of the kernel makes up for the energy burned flying those round trips.

Winter resident cardinals, song sparrows, juncos, and white-throated sparrows catch protein rich insect in the summer, primarily to feed their rapidly growing young. But as freezing temps kill the insects or force them to “hide out” for the winter, the birds turn to seeds. Last winter I watched some very inventive juncos alight on the three foot high drying stalks of our Joe Pye weeds, shake them, and then drop to the snowy crust to eat the tiny seeds that fell. It is hard to believe those tiny flecks offer enough sustenance.

I’d like to highlight a personal favorite seed eating mammal, the “high energy” red squirrel. They, like the chickadee, seem to spend more energy finding food, than the energy they get from seeds. In a conifer grove you may have found a daily growing pile of pine cone scales after the squirrels cut down a cone, one at a time, then chew off the scales to reveal the seed on each one. If oak trees are in their feeding area, they work constantly cutting down an acorn, running down the trunk, then scurrying over to where it dropped. In minutes it has carried it to its cache and its back up the trunk again. I bet you wish your teenagers had half that energy. (Maybe you should be feeding them seeds)

As you get out in the fall woodlands, look for the chickadees, juncos, and the hyperactive red squirrels as they find and eat their seeds.

Enjoy and preserve our forests and their inhabitants.

Test Your Outdoor Knowledge: True or False: White-tailed deer never give birth to more than two fawns at a time.

Last Week’s Trivia Answer: The snake pictured has a round pupil and is nonvenomous. Bonus points, it is a northern water snake.

Contact Barry Reed at breed71@gmail.com.