Grackle and Squirrel

 

The grackles have come to town.  Another nuisance - or so we at first thought!  Chris was driving them off and looking online for inventive ways to get rid of them when she discovered maybe it's not so bad to let them hang around.  They are only here for a few weeks, and they eat bugs!  If they're willing to eat the awful centipedes that sometimes wind up in the house, we're all for letting them stay!  Now, whatever is going on with the head of this one we don't know.  They usually have a beautiful shiny blue head, but this one either has some albino traits or a bad case of alopecia or mange or molting or something.  We're willing to let them hang around but not all that interested to spend more time figuring out the odd looks of this one. 

 

There's a new philosphy around here; if you cant beat them, join them.  Even though it's been a very tame winter this year, there were a few very cold days when the squirrels looked miserable and hungry. They continued to raid the bird feeders, driving Chris crazy, so she broke down and bought them their own corn cob treats.  They ate through those pretty quickly and seemed most appreciative.  Since they are sort of comical and fun to watch when they're not invading the birds' territory, Chris decided to put out some over ripe strawberries to see if they would like those.  Seems it's best to keep the little critters occupied with treats which keeps us all happy.

Happy Halloween

 

This is our little friend Skippy (we think), but it looks like we will have to give him a new nickname, Peter Peter Pumpkin Eater. The past two Halloweens, he has come trick-or-treating at our back door for peanuts, but it looks like we have a new tradition to keep up with now, pumpkin for the squirrels.

Stubby the Squirrel

 

There is a squirrel with a very short tail that has been visiting our yard. We call him "Stubby." Actually, there are two such squirrels. We're not sure what happened to them, but they still run and climb very fast, perhaps faster than the squirrels weighted down by bushy tails.

Squirrel with a winter coat on

Although we have a squirel proof bird feeder, Chris has grown to accept the squirrels and she even likes one that we call Skippy. He is much better behaved than his cohorts: Fatty, Jif, Scarback, Freaky Tail, Split Ear, Brown Nose and Ugly Face. Here, Skippy is posing with his winter coat on top of the birdhouse.

Droll Yankee Flipper Squirrel Proof Bird Feeder

 

We go to great lengths to keep squirrels away from the bird food. While there are bird feeders with cages that keep squirrels away, they interfere with bird watching and bird photography. We try other things, such as feeders on long wires or buy squirrel proof bird feeders.

The Droll Yankee Flipper squirrel-proof bird feeder has a motor that spins the bar when a squirrel gets on it. We have found it to be very effective and occasionally entertaining. The squirrels are dazed but not harmed by the spin. This squirrel set a record by hanging on for about 30 seconds before getting tossed.

Swimming Squirrel

We were out in the boat hoping to photograph wood ducks. We didn't see any, but we got some kingfisher photos. On the way back, Chris spotted something swimming across the lake. At first we thought it was a muskrat or even a beaver, but when we got close, we we astonished to see it was a squirrel. It was so far out that it didn't appear to have fallen in from a tree, but looked to be crossing the lake.

Squirrel: Cute or Evil?

There is a disagreement in our family about squirrels.

Thief

At first we thought the squirrels were cute. Now we are not so sure

Hawk Getting Ready to Fly

This hawk hung around for a while in a tree looking for something to eat. He scared a finch away from the feeder and landed on a post on the dock. Here is a picture of him as he was flying away still hungry.

There was a squirrel in the tree who didn't move for a few minutes. Here, the hawk seemed to consider a squirrel dinner.