‘No dice over here! How does it look on your side?’
An update on events on our backporch bird feeder…
For years, we’ve had a pair of doves hang around our deck, eyeing our feeder, which is designed for much smaller birds. They can land on one of the little perches, but can’t get their heads down to the seed without pushing themselves off.
They haven’t give up. A couple of days back, they both managed a landing on the roof of the feeder, then for several minutes kept sneaking peaks over the edge, trying to figure out how to get down there and enjoy a meal. Eventually, they gave it up as hopeless.
NOTICE: Diners must be this small or smaller.
As usual, I felt bad for them. They reminded me of paupers gazing hungrily through the windows of a fancy restaurant. I did what I could — I scattered a bunch of seed on the ground below the feeder. Happily, my wife noticed at least one of them eating on the ground later.
They were both terribly genteel about the injustice of it all.
Not this guy below. He doesn’t care how fat his arse is; he will leap to the feeders, grab on with fingers and toes, and chow down. I’m guessing these rats with fluffy tales consume about two-thirds of the food we put out for birds.
He doesn’t care. And he’s not a gentleman about it. Nor are the other squirrels. And after all that free insulation we let them have when it was cold…
If you’ll notice from the doves pic, this guy or one of his thieving brethren had already cleaned out the bottom chamber of the feeder. Now he’s working on the top.
