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.
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.
Comments
Fred
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
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
P.S. They might be UPPER teeth marks! They often hang out on the feeder upside down.
Mom
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
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
Did I type that?Mourning doves are the cows of the BIRD WORLD...I'm not good before I get goin in the morning...