So you can imagine my delight when my husband, Rob, brought home this amazing product last November, called the "Bird in Hand!" He told me it was a way that I could do more than just watch the birds. It was basically a frame that looked like a seated person, and we dressed it up in my old coat, gloves, and hat and put it out in the yard on a chair, near the bird feeder. It was really easy to set up - it's made of steel rods, so it didn't fall over or bend, and it was steady enough that almost immediately birds were venturing to it as often as to the old plastic feeder.

But this is the exciting part... After a week or two, when we figured they had grown accustomed to the Bird in Hand feeder, Rob helped me dress up just the way we had dressed up the steel figure, and I sat out in the chair in the yard and held out my hand. I never thought the birds would actually be fooled, but after a little while a chickadee landed right in my hand! It was magical.

Now the neighborhood kids come over sometimes and love to take a turn in the bird-feeding chair. Even Rob enjoys it! All they have to do is put on that coat and hat and sit really still...

I'm so glad we got to have such a unique experience! Now we can feed birds from our own hands any time we want to. And because there were so many more birds looking for food they could no longer find in the wild, fall was the perfect time to get started. What a wonderful gift!