28
Feb
2008
One thing I love about winter is feeding the birds. This time of year, the only birds we have are chickadees, mostly because we are too lazy to have the variety of seed-holders and suet-holders and all the other things that it takes to attract different breeds. (Unlike some people... Hi Mom! Hi Sarah!) Also, we really don't have a good place to hang birdfeeders. The one we do have, we hang from our lilac bush.
In a month or two the snow will start to melt (right? RIGHT??) and then the birdfeeder will be surrounded by the slowest and laziest of all our woodland birds, the Mourning Dove. We usually get two or three families raised in our yard, and I swear to you, they are like the sea cows of the lawn. They just hang out under the feeder all day long, looking plump and dazed. I will be sure to take pictures for ya'll.
Now, our lilac is not particularly tall, and usually the birdfeeder is about 3 feet off the ground. But with all this snow we've been having, now the birdfeeder is about 6 inches above the (current) ground level. This has brought out everyone's favorite winter rodent, the squirrel. Also known, among members of my family, as "those little bastards".
When I refilled the feeder the other day, as I walked up to it, I thought, "Ooh, look at the neat frost marks! Hey. Those aren't frost marks." For you, dear readers, I've braved the cold and snapped an exclusive Super X-Treem CloseUpTM of the middle birdfeeder rung:
Holy cracked corn, Batman! Look at those claw marks! People, that is powder-coated steel! (Well, maybe. Like I could identify steel on sight. It's, uh... some sort of silvery metal!) I'm not sure why the little buggers don't just reach inside the hole and pull out what they want, but such are the whims of squirrels.
When I refilled the feeder the other day, as I walked up to it, I thought, "Ooh, look at the neat frost marks! Hey. Those aren't frost marks." For you, dear readers, I've braved the cold and snapped an exclusive Super X-Treem CloseUpTM of the middle birdfeeder rung:
In a month or two the snow will start to melt (right? RIGHT??) and then the birdfeeder will be surrounded by the slowest and laziest of all our woodland birds, the Mourning Dove. We usually get two or three families raised in our yard, and I swear to you, they are like the sea cows of the lawn. They just hang out under the feeder all day long, looking plump and dazed. I will be sure to take pictures for ya'll.
Comments
Fred
February 28, 2008 3:42 PM
hmmm... You know, those are probably lower teeth marks. They usually try and gnaw their weasel-ey way into the holes so they can get their whole head in and get the corn etc. out. They can't really use their arms to get the stuff out (no opposable thumbs, and all). You might want to dig a depression in the snow a few feet down, but those d*mned bastards are pretty determined and I doubt it will do any good. I agree about the mourning doves - lazy. Do you get grackles that bully everyone else around the feeder?
-F
Eileen
February 28, 2008 4:46 PM
I refuse to believe this whole "no opposable thumbs" excuse. The chickadees don't even have *fingers* and they manage to pull out gobs of seeds and drop most of them on the ground. Those sqrrlz could easily scoop out with the whole of their tiny evil hands.
Hmmm... are grackles the black and white ones? We don't get very many of those. Maybe a few a year. We do get our fair share of cowbirds later in spring, and many other small brownish birds -- finches? vireos? warblers? Honestly, they all look the same. I realize that is bird-watcher heresy, but somebody has to tell it like it is.
Eileen
February 28, 2008 5:01 PM
P.S. They might be UPPER teeth marks! They often hang out on the feeder upside down.
Mom
February 28, 2008 11:12 PM
Today we had a new bird at our feeder. Well, actually, it was standing on the deck below the feeder, looking for (according to the bird book) small rodents to swoop down on and eat.
It was a Northern Shrike. We had never seen one before, and all our bird books list them as pretty rare. So we were excited. Do you think he might like red squirrel?
Thingnamer
February 29, 2008 7:56 AM
Mourning doves are the sea cows of the lawn?
I think not.
More correctly, sea cows are the cows of the sea. Cow cows are the cows of the lawn.
See? There already IS a cow for your situation. And it's a cow, not a cow of the sea. That's why they call it a "cow."
Either stop using this example or get yourself some Holsteins so when Teddy comes to visit next time you don't give him bad information.
Bad aunt! Baaaaad.
Mourning doves are the cows of the lawn. End of story.
thingnamer
February 29, 2008 9:47 AM
Did I type that?
Mourning doves are the cows of the BIRD WORLD...
I'm not good before I get goin in the morning...