Feed whatever you want! Fer kee-reist!
Way back in the Dark Ages when there was only one beach urchin and we were new to the Landfill, the GG had a birdfeeder (or maybe more than one birdfeeder) in the back yard. It attracted all kinds of birds and sometimes I would look out there and think that we had an air force in the back yard. Unfortunately it also attracted… Well… What? Shirr’ls/cirkers/squirrels/EEEEEEEK! Yes. You guys know the drill. You put up a bird feeder and the birds find it but it also gets overrun with squirrels. And the bird-lover/watcher tries everything on earth to keep the blasted squirrels from getting the birdseed. And nothing works. People, have you ever watched squirrels negotiate trees? And fences and power lines and whatever… They do not fly like birds do but they do get around. I have seen a squirrel “fall” out of a tree right in front of me and get up and run away. And then there was the time that the GG decided to clean out a “birdhouse” that he had placed up on our fireplace chimney. He got up there on a ladder and knocked the “birdhouse” to the ground. Except that it was not a birdhouse. Hello! It was a SQUIRREL house with mooma squirrel and three (count ’em) babies in there. YiiiY!!! Those babies fell from a great height. We thought they were dead. We kept the beach urchins out of the back room so they wouldn’t see the dead baby squirrels. Then. One of them SCREAMED!!! Suddenly (Here I come, to save the day!!!!) Mooma squirrel appeared. One by one, she rolled up each baby and transported them to a safer nest. Apparently she wasn’t terribly fluent at counting because after all three had been moved, she kept coming back. The GG? Persona non grata for the rest of the afternoon.
So, after years of no bird feeders, we have one or two (or three or whatever) now. Birds are visiting, I think, but I was at work all day today so whaddoo I know… But guess who else is getting up there… Chipmunks. I dunno. I love birds. And squirrels and chipmunks. Why can’t we just put food out and watch whoever shows up? Or not and watch who does not show up… Raccoons? They are cute but not when they try to eat my baby girl. Skunks? They are cute too. But…
Love all of you,
KW
June 16th, 2009 at 7:46 pm
I am watching Chipmunks. They are rapidly collecting the sun flower seeds from the bird feeder. I considered the issue of rodent control… I also considered that Chipmunks are cheaper to feed than Anoles – we had five for several years. Chipmunks are cure. Finally, Chipmunks are bird food.
I think I will leave the Chipmunks alone.
June 16th, 2009 at 8:50 pm
Nice concept: “Chipmunks are cure.”
Take two and call in the morning? (Or so a birdie told me!)
June 16th, 2009 at 8:53 pm
Okay. Okay. Chipmunks are CUTE!
June 16th, 2009 at 11:04 pm
Pete has a neat solution for the squirrel problem. Talk to him about it when you’re here this week-end.
June 17th, 2009 at 12:45 pm
We have bird feeders AND a squirrel/chipmunk feeder at Harstine. While the squirrels and chipmunks do eat the bird seed (because I scatter quite a lot on the ground beneath the feeders), we don’t mind at all. They actually do prefer their own food (peanuts plus sunflower seeds) so as long as their feeder is stocked, they all get along quite well! It’s fun watching the menagerie (and also challenging keeping MojotheCat away…by squirting the hose at him when he gets too close).