I’ve outdone my birdfeeding self this year. I throw sunflower seeds on the ground. I crumble old bread and cut up chunks of beef suet for my feeders. I also melt lard and add oatmeal and peanut butter (recipe given by fellow bird-feeding reader) and make another yummy snack. Sometimes, I even throw out unsalted peanuts.
My yard is buzzing with birds that add color and noise to the white quiet of winter days.
A friend who recently started feeding birds asked what kinds come to my feeders. I listed them, then added, “and a pretty fox who checks out my yard, a pine marten that hops on the deck railing and a red squirrel named Arnold.”
I probably could win a “crazy old bird lady” contest, but no one can accuse me of trying to attract rodents. I’ve never extended my winter bird “welcome wagon” to include these bothersome creatures. Throughout my years of bird feeding, I’ve always shooed them away. However this year, Arnold , the red squirrel, endeared himself to me.
He’s a bit smaller than the norm and cute in a rodent-kind-of-way. He frequently sits atop a small birdhouse we’ve nailed up on a spruce trunk. This was his first good move since the only other occupant was a tree frog several years ago. Birds don’t seem to like it. I was happy to see something using it.
His next smart move was to stop and watch one day when I walked by. He scrutinized me from his perch, and, on an impulse, I talked to him. “How’re you doing today?” He cocked his little head, quite intelligently and listened. He held his little paws out in front of his chest, sat for another few seconds and finally scooted down the tree trunk and ran directly towards me.
I jumped, but needn’t have. He made a right hand turn and disappeared under the front steps. I watched him for the next few days and noticed he’d dug a lot of tunnels and hidey-holes. Arnold had surrounded my house. But he’s polite about encroaching on my territory. Mostly he sits on the birdhouse and listens when I talk to him. He stops and waits for me to spread peanuts on the deck railing before he starts munching, and he’s never tried to get inside my house. That’s where our friendship would end.
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