Operation Peanut Retrieval! Top Secret!…and other birds!
Is it Blue Jay torture slipping the peanuts between the vine so they have to really work to pull them out or is it blue jay exercise? You tell me! They are greedy birds and can be downright rude to their fellow avian relatives so I try to level the playing field at times. Now adopting Oin and Gloin they said was just downright mean! Evil little dwarves, or do we call them gnomes now? The Jays were NOT impressed and treated them like some kind of otherworldly beasts…wait, they are;) Do I have too much time on my hands? I couldn’t resist for a very small investment at the Dollar Store I came home with these two. I have been looking for garden gnomes, used, but have not been successful…but now! Ha!
They treated the poor dwarves like a foe to battle and overcome!
Finally it was “Operation successful, dwarves Oin and Gloin do not appear to be a hazard! Returning to base…Blue Bomber out! Good Luck Blue Thief! Then the next Jay came in for peanut retrieval!
Then, it started all over again, the squirrels on the other hand just kind of sauntered up, “Hey dude…got any of that good seed? or maybe a trippy peanut?”…not the raccoons, they tossed Oin and Gloin about on the table, beating them up so I have to put them away at night! No asking for seeds from them, gimme them buster, or face the consequences…we live with a rough crowd out here at the lake!
The bad ass visitor this week, a Sharp Shinned Hawk, is not much bigger than a mourning dove! He flew over us as we sat, I actually thought it was a dove at first but a very decisive flight so I followed him. He was chasing a dove, then harassing some chickadees down at the edge of the lake in the cedars until the ravens came and escorted him away!
Songbirds make up about 90 percent of the Sharp-shinned Hawk’s diet. Birds the size of American Robins or smaller (especially warblers, sparrows, and thrushes) are the most frequent prey; bigger birds are at less risk, though they’re not completely safe. Studies report quail, shorebirds, doves, swifts, woodpeckers, and even falcons as prey. Sharp-shins also eat small rodents, such as mice and voles, and an occasional moth or grasshopper. Scarier than the Grackle yelling at dwarves for sure!
I made the mistake of running low on suet and the Hairy woodpeckers were very very crabby having only one spot to go eat…and share…not sharers the male said. The smaller female stood her ground, good girl! I was happy to hear and see the male Red Bellied Woodpecker early one morning, he’s been pretty quiet so yeah! Still a pair here!…and the sound of geese going over…like a symphony of Spring! Hundreds of them! Some heading North, ha and some heading South! Not yet they must be saying!
And we have our usual cast of small fluffy birds and woodpeckers. The Pileated have been very very quiet…most likely looking for, or making their nesting sight. I will have to keep my eyes peeled on the old maples with newly made holes! There is one dead one they have been tearing apart!
I was sorry I missed capturing the fighting/playing eagles, those screams, I thought something was being eviscerated! Funny how the cats came running into the alcove…all safe here Müther, we will sit with Father for awhile and then maybe go back into the house please!
We will keep our eyes peeled for any newcomers on the lake, if it melts, or snows…we never know! I like how unspecific they are with their “Special Weather forecast”..it could be anywhere from 10-60mm of rain, or 2-10 cm of snow. I called our plow folks, told them not to plow the road this weekend as it is so soft it would tear it up pretty badly, or fill in the potholes…wait, nah…Ha! Could we be done with plow bills for the year?! Hopefully I didn’t just jinx us! I’ll leave you with more crabby woodpeckers. Apparently the Red Bellied doesn’t take any guff from the Hairy’s, feathers were flying! Lesson to be learned here…don’t mess with a red head;) Saludos amigos!
