Round the Feeder

Our birdfeeders are turning into better entertainment than anything that's on tv! Yesterday I saw the most blue jays I'd ever seen in one spot. I counted 15 of them and I know there were a few I was missing, so I'm guessing we had 20 at one sitting! It was very pretty, but they scare off anything else that might be around.

This morning David and I were looking out there and who should appear from a hole in the snow, but Mrs Rat. She hopped out of one snow hole and right into another. We watched for her to resurface but she didn't. All we could see from time to time was a little movement under the snow and leaves. I kept watching after David left for work and was amazed to see that she'd started tossing dirt out of the hole she was in. I've no idea what she was up to down there, but it looked like she was digging a trench! I guess when winter comes and it gets cold and windy it is much better to tunnel under snow than run about on top of it!

I've been battling with how I feel about Mr & Mrs being out there, and I've come to the conclusion that they or their fore-rats have probably been around out there since before we moved here, and we haven't been infested with them yet.  If I saw twenty out there I'd be mortified, if I saw more than four I'd probably be concerned, but two I can handle.  They look very clean and what really separates them from a cute chipmunk or a squirrel?  Their reputation as plague carriers and vermin, which is really quite unjustified.  We, the civilised humans are the ones that have taken away so much of nature's habitat and created so much garbage, dirt and free food sites in cities that it's no wonder things get out of control.  For now I'm going to live blindly believing  that Mother Nature knows best and she will not let things get out of control out there.  If she does, well I guess we'll rethink things at that point!

Now we have acrobatic squirrels!  One just came flying out of a tree onto the kitchen roof, I can only imagine he went plummeting down the other side as he disappeared immediately.  He's now been replaced by Red who's sitting like king of the castle on the peak at the end of the roof - surveying his domain!