The Missing Birds

One autumn morning, a gardener noticed something strange.

The birdfeeder was full.

The birds were gone.

For several days she watched from the kitchen window. The seeds remained untouched. Not a single goldfinch arrived. Even the sparrows seemed to have disappeared.

The gardener began to worry.

Perhaps the birds had found a different yard.

Perhaps they no longer liked the seed she was offering.

Then one afternoon she spotted a goldfinch flying across the garden.

The bird did not stop at the feeder.

Instead, it landed on a sunflower.

A second goldfinch followed.

Then a third.

Soon the gardener noticed birds everywhere. They balanced on the old sunflower heads, pecking busily among the seeds. Sparrows searched beneath the plants. A squirrel darted through the flower bed carrying something in its mouth.

The feeder stood forgotten.

The gardener laughed.

All summer she had been filling the birdfeeder. Meanwhile, the sunflowers had quietly been growing hundreds of seeds of their own.

The next morning she emptied the old feeder and put it away in the shed. Then she carried a watering can to the sunflower bed. The plants would need a little help before the season ended.

A goldfinch landed on a seed head and began pecking happily.

The gardener smiled. It seemed she was still feeding the birds after all.

Just not in the way she had expected.