by Amanda Hueneke

True confessions: My husband and I have turned into old people bird-watchers. I have a bird feeder playground right outside my dining room window, across from my home office, and I’m serious…. It’s becoming a weekly trip to Walmart or Lowe’s to figure out how we can make a better bird environment in our back yard.

In my defense, I didn’t plan to become an old person bird-watcher. But, a few years ago, the dogs “helped” me with the window treatments by pulling down the curtains and the curtain rod around the window. They also “helped” me decide that I didn’t need those faux wood blinds anymore- but that’s a story for another blog. We’ve repainted, and redone the floors in the downstairs since then, but over time, I became accustomed to the bright, open light of not having blinds or curtains on the windows. And since it’s a fenced area of my backyard, I have decided to leave it that way for the time being. Thanks, doggos. You’ve shone me the light.

Anyway, since it’s this weird area of our fenced side yard, we tried to do something with it. We laid mulch and stepping stones; and then we added tri-level shepherds hooks with hanging flower baskets, and cute solar lanterns. When the Texas heat kept claiming our hanging basket flowers and my struggling caladiums underneath- I decided- hey, maybe we should add a bird feeder. After all the trips to Lowes, we’re now up to a family of 5 red finches, three bird feeders, three shepherds’ hooks, one solar lantern, an on-the-way out hanging basket, and a partridge in a pear tree. Not really a partridge, but I do have pear trees… I digress…

We’ve been watching our birds for quite some time now. Daily, and in the evenings, and my dogs have even gotten used to them. There’s the family of finches- mom, dad and three babies, the happy cardinal couple, a few docile doves who content themselves to eat the ground scraps the other birds drop; and there was a large blue jay.

I’ve learned a few things watching these birds. First, they all seem to mostly get along- it’s almost like they take turns at the feeders. 4 different types of breeds can be out there, all at the same time, and there’s no drama. Huh. There’s a thought.

Secondly, they all approach the task of eating differently. Some of them like to eat in groups- the finches, for example. Now, I’ve watched these little guys for a while, and I know they’re a family, because a few short weeks ago, mom was feeding them on my fence ledge. The little ones are flying fine, but obviously still hanging out with mom and dad. All of them might get on the feeders at the same time- but they go for the small seeds- quantity over quality. The cardinals, and the blue jays- they tend to run everyone else off so that they can go for the bigger, fancier sunflower seed feeder. There are two cardinals that get along and share the space occasionally, and then the afore-mentioned doves. And there’s that one large blue jay- who was beautiful, and confident and just ran everyone out to get what he wanted. He only eats out of the fancy feeder, and he would grab the kernel, and fly up to the fence ledge to crack it open and eat by himself. He’s pleasantly plump, well fed, and has beautiful feathers.

Haven’t seen him lately, but there is a new kid in town- another blue jay. Now this guy, he doesn’t “fit the bill” (Haha, I’m so funny), of your typical blue jay. He’s kind of, well- scrappy. I can’t tell if he’s a baby, or what. But his head feathers don’t quite lay the way they should. He’s molting feathers from his chest- and it makes him look fluffy instead of sleek. He’s kind of skinny. And he shares the feeder space with other birds- and I’m going to call that- works well with others. As husband and I have watched him eat- we noticed that he doesn’t even go for the fancy stuff. He just jumps on the top of the middle shepherd’s hook (that holds the fancy feeder), grasps the top of it with his talons- sometimes sliding on the curve- and then uses the top of the hook to boost his height to stretch and reach the feeder next to him- the one with the little seeds. I guess the ledges on that little feeder are too little for this big bird- but he just eats right out of the feeder, like the little finches do. Huh.

This morning, I saw Scrappy, and I thought to myself- there is something beautiful about that. He might not even know that he is bigger than the other birds, or that he should be eating the fancier seeds that are meant for his breed. But there is something so cool about the fact that he eats with the finches, that he uses his ingenuity to get the job done, he thinks outside the box and reaches for something that’s not always easier.  He has different strengths and different weaknesses from that other blue jay- but they both still get the job done- one of them with a bit of humility (if birds can have such a thing).

What does this have to do with the workplace? Well, you’ve probably already figured that analogy out, by now. But also- it’s taken me forty plus years to figure out my strengths and focus on them, instead harping on my weaknesses. Am I still working on them? You bet.

What are your strengths? What do you bring to the workplace- or even your home, or life- that is just you.  How can you leverage your strengths to make up for your weaknesses- to stretch you and reach for the next best thing? Are you kind? Are you a servant? Are you assertive? Are you intuitive? Are you a born leader, or a “bossy pants”? Is "over achiever" really a bad word? 

Maybe I’m just fired up because I’ve been reading Girl, Wash Your Face, and listening to the podcasts, but for a long time, I listened to people use certain words about me. And I believed they were bad. I believed that they were traits I should be ashamed of- especially as a female. But no. That is a lie, and I chose to quit believing it, and so should you. Maybe those words people are saying- are the very words that are your strengths. Go use them. Go get your space at the feeder.

And don’t be afraid of the bigger birds- a lot of it is just squawk.