Recently, I wrote about chickadees (Home and Garden section, Wednesday StarTribune). The column ended with a question: why do chickadees take a seed from the feeder and fly to a nearby tree with it? Why not just eat it at the store? A few days later I was picking up some meds at the pharmacy I use. A gentleman named George was ringing me up. Midway, he looked up and softly said, "Chickadees."

What?

"Chickadees. You wrote about chickadees. You wondered why they don't eat the seeds at the feeder."

"That's right."

"It's because they need a hard surface on which to place the seed so they can more easily chop it open," George said.

Yes! I've seen that. The birds sometimes use the wooden feeder itself as base for the hacking. I blanked on that one. A duh moment.

Thanks, George.