FEEDER ACTION!!

We lost during a windstorm earlier this month, the birch limb that held our bird feeder. I bought a tall shepherd's crook and awaited the squirrel onslaught. Within days, they had shimmied up the pole and were feasting. The squirrel baffle I ordered should arrive today or so.

The first to access the feeder was a red squirrel named by C as Squirrel Nutkin in honor of the beloved Beatrix Potter character.

A young male that we named Puck soon came along and this acrobat/trickster/thief was all over the feeder.

Hanging by his back claws while eating was quite an impressive feat. This bad boy knocked Rolla away as she was stretching from the pole with her front claws hanging on the feeder. She was so angry that she displaced her rage on a four inch curve of birch bark that was on the ground. She rolled and rolled with it in her hands in an absolute fury. Damn kids! Later, Puck took a breather from his efforts.

In the absence of the tree rodents, many of our feathered pals enjoyed a snack. Here, Messrs. Goldfinch and House Finch stopped by.

On the ground were a number of White Crowned Sparrows who often stop off while migrating from their winter quarters in mid-Ohio, Indiana, Illinois to their summer places in the Pacific Northwest.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                    Steve Ryan

They kindly left positive reviews on the Critter Trip Advisor site.
 

Yet another pond in the Back 40, number six for the season which has been the coldest and wettest in memory, certainly in the past decade that we have lived here. But at least we haven't seen the white stuff since the morning of the18th.