I see a crow up on top of the oak
tree and wonder how it can just stand there without any trouble. I
mean it is on the tip of a small, if not the smallest, branch it can
find. Just balancing there with no effort whatsoever.
The starling group is joining it
now and it is crowing its head off, but still they come and spy the
seed field we have left for the outside birds, squirrels and bunnies
in the neighborhood.
Ah they have descended on the
field of seeds and feeder and they remind me of the swarm of insects
one sees on a Nat Geo channel documentary. Then poof they are off
again and replaced by the ever present Juncos.
The footprints in the snow sow
the paths the squirrels take during the day and the bunnies during
the night, and making it look like a well developed highway system.
They come and feast as our fenced
in yard is a safe haven for them. The neighbor's dogs can't get to
them here, and it gives them a nice alternative to the traps set by
unfeeling, and uncaring neighbors along our little street.
What is missing this year are the
little red squirrels. I guess when everyone cut down the pine trees
this summer they went away as those were their homes. However there
is one white squirrel, with a gray head, which lives a block away
that we see on our walks. The wife want s to get it to move to our
yard, but alas how does one entreaty a squirrel to move?
The gray squirrels make their way
across the roof of the neighbor's garage, jumps onto one tree, then
the next so they can get to the wire. Then down the pole and under
the fence and up our little Japanese Maple.
One they sense everything is
clear, its down the maple and across the yard straight for the cinder
blocks we use for one of the feeding stations. This way they have an
elevated spot for when the snows come, and yes the snows do come a
lot up here.
He takes what he wants, and moves
to the main feeder as the next squirrel follows a discreet distance.
Up the pole and into the to get the best tidbits left over from our
parrot's bowl from the day before.
Oops the first squirrel saw the
second one and we have a fight and a chase, and soon the second one
leaves and sits on the fence waving his tail at the first and chirps
angrily away.
Ah now Mrs Cardinal, son joined
by Mr Cardinal, and a couple of Blue Jays, take their rightful place
vacated by the second squirrel. A Nuthatch sneaks in and grabs a
goody from the outside of the box and the squirrel leaves, for now.
Back comes the juncos, and it
starts all over again as the crow is back has assumed its post on top
of the oak...
Mahalo.
