For Florida children, summertime means beach days. And in my house, beach days have always meant feeding the birds. My sister and I loved it as kids, and now I enjoy watching my daughters chase after the seagulls.
We never feed the birds during the day when the beach is crowded with people — beachgoers don’t want birds flocking overhead. Rather we head down to the water’s edge at the end of a full day of play. It’s peaceful that time of day, around 5 pm, when most of the crowd has gone home. And within minutes we are regularly surrounded by birds.
Mom has always saved stale crackers and bread, marking them with a Sharpie in the pantry “Bird Food.” And since everything goes stale quickly at the beach, there is never a short supply. Armed with bags of assorted breads and crackers, the feast is over within minutes.
Watching my girls feed the birds, I am often reminded of the beggar lady selling bags of bird feed on the steps of St Paul’s Cathedral in Mary Poppins. And sometimes K joins me in song.
Feed the birds, tuppence a bag
Tuppence, tuppence, tuppence a bag
Feed the birds,” that’s what she cries
While overhead, her birds fill the skies
I never really thought about our tradition of feeding the birds until I met my husband, and he pointed out that not everyone feeds the birds like we do. To me it was just something we always did.
When I discovered this clip of my sister and I feeding the birds from 1989 thanks to YesVideo, it made me smile because the video could just have easily been taken last summer at the beach of my girls. Laughing and chasing the birds, tossing stale bread and crackers.
I look forward to feeding the birds this summer. And this summer, I will take video in addition to my photos to capture the sights and sounds of their delight in feeding the birds.
Sharing this video with my daughters of my sister and I feeding the birds was made possible when I transferred old 8 mm tapes to digital and DVD with YesVideo. If you have video footage locked away on an old format, do something about it. Relive your memories (and possible photo opps) with YesVideo.
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Thomas Chappell says
March 13, 2014 at 12:39 pmWe went to a park near our house and feed a few ducks, these ducks were insane….. The lept out of the water and stole the bread right from my daughters hands. She really got a kick out of it and just wanted to stay there all day.
ghassan alsaleh says
March 13, 2014 at 1:18 pmDuks my favorite bird to my kid
keely hostetter says
March 13, 2014 at 1:22 pmMy kids love feeding birds. they love trying to get them to eat out of their hands!
Kaylee Kuroski says
March 13, 2014 at 1:49 pmHow cute! I used to love feeding birds in my grandparents garden as a kid. Definitely a tradition to pass on. 🙂
Cynthia C says
March 13, 2014 at 2:12 pmThis is something I did with my kids when they were small. They really enjoyed observing nature and interacting with the birds.
Jean says
March 13, 2014 at 2:13 pmWe love feeding birds, too. Usually we take bread to feed the ducks and geese at a lake/walking path near our house. We tend not to do it at the beach, but mostly because we don’t get to go that often and we’re too busy playing!
DailyWoman(Lacey) says
March 13, 2014 at 4:38 pmWe took a trip and had to ride a ferry across a river and my kids had so much fun feeding the birds that would ride the back of the ferry. It was so neat to throw food in the air and watch them grab it.
nicole dz says
March 13, 2014 at 5:55 pmWe always feed the ducks & there babies when we got to the park down by the lake. We also have quite a few bird feed feeder in our yard. We always crumble up the old bread and scatter it around the trees where the birds are. We love the animals.
Ghassan Alsaleh says
March 13, 2014 at 8:58 pmThe duck is my favorite bird to my kid
Tara L says
March 13, 2014 at 9:08 pmMy son loves feeding the birds on the beach (the seagulls) I feel so bad for them sometime because they need some good loving and food. I don’t know why people get aggravated it’s just an animal right
Samantha Peres says
March 13, 2014 at 10:03 pmso cute! your family is so cute !!
lisa lo says
March 13, 2014 at 11:03 pmWhere I live I can toss bread to Seagulls, Pigeons, Grackles & Sparrows when I open my front door. They are fun to watch and we have always gotten a kick out of feeding the birds.
Susan Broughton says
March 13, 2014 at 11:10 pmWe do not live near any large bodies of water so no birds like the ones above. However, we do have a bird feeder in the yard with a birdbath for them as well as a hummingbird feeder to watch the hard to see hummingbirds.
Mary Withrow says
March 14, 2014 at 12:06 amI lived in Daytona for a while and they really did not like it, lol (People feeding birds)- I have friend that is scared of birds. However I have 8 birds and adore them. My children love to feed the birds and I have feeders they fill up with me everyday, some little birds are bold and will sit on the ground next to us waiting, lol. I have transferred all of our families too. Great video
Sally says
March 14, 2014 at 1:06 amThat’s a heartwarming story! I love family traditions!!
Shannon says
March 14, 2014 at 4:56 amI love feeding the birds, and where I usually do this is at Maymont Park here in Richmond, VA. I also feed the koi at the same time. I specifically save stale Cheerios for this purpose.
Tammy S says
March 14, 2014 at 9:42 amI think it’s great that you have a video of you and your sister feeding the birds. Now you just need to film your kids. what great memories you are making for your family.
Jackie smith says
March 14, 2014 at 2:51 pmWe feed the birds and ducks every summer with my granddaughter. This is great family fun.
Ashley Miller says
March 14, 2014 at 3:47 pmMy kids LOVE going to the park in the next town over from us and feeding the birds and squirrels. The squirrels will actually eat peanuts right out of your hands! Its pretty awesome. =)
Sweta Sonulkar says
March 14, 2014 at 4:30 pmWhenever we go to the beach we see Sea gulls and my son loves chasing and feeding them with bread or his eatables .
Aunt Susan says
March 14, 2014 at 8:05 pmJust watch out for your hotdogs on Clearwater Beach, the seagulls will help themselves!
Angela Higdon says
March 14, 2014 at 9:06 pmWe live in a tiny town in SOuthern Illinois, but we have a really nice park with a lake. The lake has geese and ducks that are very used to people, and we take our kids down to feed them a few times a year. They love it! Especially when there are baby ducks!
Lauren says
March 14, 2014 at 9:38 pmCute. My kids and I love feeding the birds! This winter, I put up a bird feeder right outside our living room window, so we can watch the birds enjoy the bird seed from our house!
Helga says
March 14, 2014 at 10:21 pmI love feeding birds. I end up feeding them since I have chickens and the sparrows come by.
Dorothy Boucher says
March 15, 2014 at 12:14 pmOMG this so reminds me of my family, and i am going through this with my grandbabies loll i love it.. we sit at the beach or at the park and feed the birds 🙂 so much fun the little ones have, thanks for share @tisonlyme143
Jamie Hamilton says
March 15, 2014 at 5:48 pmI remember fondly feeding birds (ducks, geese, chickens, seagulls) with my family as a child. I think it supports a great connection with kids/adults/nature.
M.Clark says
March 15, 2014 at 6:57 pmI have never fed the birds. It’s just not something that we did, in fact I don’t know anyone who has the time to just sit and feed the birds. Thank you for sharing this post and the video.
Carissa Joslyn says
March 15, 2014 at 7:27 pmI think this is cool. I love animals & creatures if I knew of some pleace around here when I could feed them other then in the Ghettos I so would. This year i just moved to a new place, in a safer side of town & I really want to have bird feeders as there is a tree in my back yard! although not the same thing, but still. my way of doing it.