Feeder Follies
They fight at the feeders for food each day,
Blue jays and grackles and finches hooray!
Cowbirds and cardinals, turtle doves too.
I watch from my window the frenzy ensue;
Appetites drive them, squirrels in the scrum,
Flicking their tails for a seed and a crumb!
Turtle doves, boxers, light weights with wings,
Flipping off blue jays with lightning quick stings!
Sitting on branches, hopping through trees,
Birds of a feather flocking together,
Looking for substance with ease!
Well, who isn’t?
Back in the 1970’s we started with a pair of turtle doves sitting on a cable wire running across the back yard. We called them Sarah and Abraham; today they are a nation flocking to the various backyard feeders. One of the turtle doves is absolutely the dumbest bird I have ever seen.
Various feeders hang from our deck. Some seeds inevitably fall to the ground into a flower bed below that borders the deck. The flower bed is slightly fenced in with small wrought iron fences no more than two feet tall. Next to the fence is a fairly new concrete sidewalk. Some turtle doves fly over the fence into the flower bed to eat the fallen seeds. Last winter, however, one stupid turtle dove couldn’t figure out how to get inside the fence. He or she, okay probably he, would walk up and down the sidewalk, sticking his head through the fence, watching the other birds eat their fill. Back and forth he paced, just not able, apparently, to understand how the other turtle doves got in there. “Look,” we would yell at him from in the house, “You have wings! You can fly over the fence, you stupid bird!” Yet, he paced, back and forth, looking in, always yearning, never able to figure it out. I saw him again several days ago, doing the same thing. Walking up and down the sidewalk, still hungry, I suppose. I feel kind of sorry for him now. He reminds me of myself somewhat. Alas.
We also have a feeder next to our window. Birds are thus just a double sheet of glass from us. And, it turns out, so are the wretched squirrels. The other morning, sitting in my lift chair, facing out the front window, I heard a loud crash behind me. So loud that I struggled to my feet, turned around to look at the back window. A squirrel was trying to sit on the window feeder to gobble the remaining seed. The feeder and squirrel were both half off. Ha! I hobbled to the back with my iPad and managed to get both a head shot of the rodent and a butt shot as well. Feeder follies!
This is the butt shot, inside out!
This is the head shot with butt!