Hit Me With Your Best Shot - Week 3

Today is Week 3 of Bacardi Mama's Hit Me With Your Best Shot photo challenge.  In this challenge our job is to choose and post our favorite photo from the previous week.  And I'm kind of going to do that.

I'm going to post my favorite picture as far as a difficult capture is concerned but it's certainly not a photo of my favorite subject.

Last Spring before we left on vacation the bluebirds were here in droves or maybe flocks.  And while we were gone, they disappeared never to return and we could never figure out why.  Well I'm posting a picture of why we're going to quit feeding the birds and why I think the bluebirds disappeared.

I opened the patio door curtains day before yesterday and was startled to see this creature sitting about ten feet away in our birdbath.  He immediately flew into a neighbor's tree which towers over our back yard and from about 60 feet away defied me to capture a photo of him.

All of a sudden it was crystal clear that while we were feeding the colorful little birds at our backyard bird feeders, the colorful little birds were feeding this predator.

And we'll no longer provide the bait that lures our sweet little songbirds into becoming such easy prey for this guy.

On the upside, when we quit feeding the birds, we can quit battling the squirrels.

On the downside, we know we should like all birds equally but it's painfully clear that all birds are not created equal.  Some are just plain deadly enemies of the birds we work so hard to attract.

For more Hit Me With Your Best Shot pictures, visit Bacardi Mama and for some real fun, link up and enter your favorite photo of the week.

You Capture - An Animal

Beth's You Capture challenge this week is 'An Animal' and at first I thought it really would be a challenge.  But that was when I was forgetting that birds are indeed animals.

Of course I couldn't leave out the bluebirds that still visit our feeder and birdbath multiple times every day.

They also sit on the fence while trying to contend with the wind.


And I have to include this cute little black capped chickadee holding his bird feeder treasure between his feet.

And this sparrow who looks annoyed at my intrusion.

But my favorite bird shots today were of this downy woodpecker.  He was enjoying his meal and I was enjoying photographing him enjoying it.

When an intruder decided to partake of the feast right around the corner.

The woodpecker was obviously annoyed and took immediate measures to send him on his way.

Finally his efforts paid off and the intruder 'flew the coop'.

Although the woodpecker's feathers were still ruffled for a time, he eventually settled down to finish his meal.

The last bird I photographed was sitting on an animal-friendly apparatus put in place to help lost animals find new homes.

You know, lost animals like these.  See how well it works?

For more animal shots, visit Beth at I Should Be Folding Laundry.  Better yet, why not put up some animal shots of your own.

You Capture - Black and White

Beth's You Capture challenge this week is Black and White which I soon realized wasn't as easy as it sounded.  It seemed like just a matter of converting my favorite color shots to black and white but I soon found out that not all beautiful color shots convert beautifully to black and white.

Here are the ones that I thought did the best starting with backyard wildlife.

And of course the birds - sometimes dramatic.
 

 Sometimes small and busy.

 And sometimes just neighborly.


On Saturday we went to Redamaks, a favorite local restaurant in a nearby resort town, and while we waited for a table, I snapped a few pictures.  Eli was a favorite subject.

And Eli talking it over with his grandpa was an even better one.

 And I am ........
 


For more Black and White photography, visit Beth at I Should Be Folding Laundry.

     

The Squirrels

It's my own fault. I bragged to my brother that I hadn't seen a squirrel around in days. We walked out the back door to look at the pond and he said, "There's a squirrel right there". Of course it raced around to the back of the tree, knowing there was nothing I could do about it.

Now if I had a real squirrel problem, I might get a Hav-A-Hart trap. I might catch them live and take them over 13 miles away to a really, really large outdoor area where there are no homes within miles. I might take along cut up fruit and squirrel food so that they'd have some resource for nourishment while they adjusted to their new area.

A squirrel might look like this as he scampered (or raced in terror) from his confines.

I've seen squirrels take off like that for that very reason. Then if I continued to have the problem with the irritating rodents dangling incessantly from my bird feeder and keeping all the birds away as they scrounge up every morsel that falls to the ground, I might re-set that Hav-A-Hart trap and start the process all over again.

And I might get really stubborn and just keep going to see how squirrel-free I could make my neighborhood. And I might get really lucky like this person did.

Then I would actually be able to save a trip - if this were to ever happen for me.

And if I did all this, maybe the squirrels would be really lucky too because some people suggest they should be shot or poisoned - not relocated and fed. So there could potentially be luck all around.

So I'll have to consider whether or not I'd want to take on a project like this. I've heard of people relocating 40 or 50 squirrels. That surely made their neighborhood a pleasanter and cleaner place to be.

I should really think about this.

Wrapping UP

Here it is the last day of January already and I've neglected my blog again. It's kind of been my pattern for about a year now and I know someday I'll regret it. I'll look back and wonder why I didn't write down some of what's going on in my life - even if it's not much. So I'll resolve to change all that from now on.

And I'll start by reviewing January. We had a lot of birthdays and I did manage to observe those at least but I didn't do well with You Capture having only participated once. Starting right now though I resolve not to miss another one.

I think I might have a mild case of that depression you can get when the days are short and the weather prospects offer nothing but snow and cold. This month, though, we've been pleasantly surprised. We had a snow or two but they didn't last. And since the last one it's been amazingly warm. In fact, right now it's 54 degrees outside.

When it it did snow a couple of weeks ago, I rather eagerly got out my bird feeder and filled it with the most expensive seeds - guaranteed to attract the most colorful birds. But unfortunately it attracted more pesky squirrels than colorful birds.

(I wrote about this same problem and how we handled it with a Hav-a-Hart trap last year here and here. We went on to catch quite a few of them and it really seemed to make a difference but last Fall I started to see more of them around again.)

So I watched the squirrels chase away any birds that happened on their private habitat and I watched all their friends and relatives join them. I watched them swing on the bird feeder and generally make a mess of everything. They even knocked down some of the little statues we have out there in their efforts to push off them and leap to the bird feeder.

I pretty much became a bird feeder nazi. When I saw those dang things out there, I would open the door and shout at them and sometimes even walk toward them in an effort to startle the brazen little rodents. Mostly they ignored me so a couple of times I even threw stones at them. I thought if just once I hit one, I'd feel better.

(Years ago I'd thrown a sizable rock at a squirrel in a tree in front of the house and I hit the limb he was standing on. The impact knocked the squirrel out of the tree and he landed on the ground and starting flipping and flopping all over the place. Finally he flopped onto the front steps and died. At least it looked like he did. We wouldn't even walk near him so we had to come into the house through the back door and watched in wonder through the window as he came back to life, stretched, and scampered off. Squirrels are very durable little creatures.)

Anyway, this shows you that my aim isn't very good but my intentions were pure evil toward those nasty little buggers. This winter then, we hadn't set out the trap but we were having an increasingly serious problem with the squirrels. One day I was happy to see five cardinals all around the feeder. Then they disappeared to be replaced by a squirrel. I stepped quietly out the door, picked up a rock, took careful aim, and I nailed it!!! Not the squirrel - my bird feeder. It broke and scattered all the seeds all over the ground and the squirrel and his friends AND relatives had a party while they laughed at the crazy woman who'd served the fabulous snacks.

Mr. Right patiently bought me another feeder and I pondered what to do about those stinking squirrels. I considered setting food out just for them so they wouldn't hang on the feeder but I was pretty sure the population explosion we were experiencing would be small potatoes compared to the one we'd have if we deliberately fed them. And I looked at squirrel deterrents but none seemed like they'd work with our pole and the one that was most interesting and looked the most effective cost $89. In retrospect, I probably should have gotten that but we had just gotten this brand new feeder.

Yesterday I was on the treadmill for 45 minutes and for each and every one of those minutes a squirrel dangled from the bird feeder. That did it. I set the trap and within an hour I'd caught the first one. Twenty four hours later, I've trapped five of them. And I've driven them to a wildlife refuge and a state park both of which are over ten miles away. That's why I should have just spent $89 for a squirrel resistant feeder except that they'd still hang around on the ground and scare the birds away. So that's that for the squirrels - for now. But I'm pretty sure there are only about three more to capture. We'll see.

Also this month I did another course of chemo cream on my basal cell skin cancer. I finished the course, saw the plastic surgeon, and was told to come back on the 15th of March for another assessment. I'm a little unnerved because as the days go by post-treatment, my nose looks redder and more blistered than it did right after I finished. I'm also experiencing a lot of weird sensations and irritations. I'm not sure what all that indicates but I guess I'll find out in March.

I also remembered that I haven't finished my Christmas Story series. I'll do that very shortly just as soon as I get a letter that is an integral part of the story. Which leads to another life changer for the past month. This is the month that I got completely addicted to Words With Friends. I blame that completely on Alec Baldwin and the news breaking trouble he caused because he wouldn't quit playing on an airline tarmac one day. I can totally see that happening to me. It's that addicting and just the fact that I don't understand why they'll only let you play twenty games at a time proves it.

I Have A Heart

Yesterday I talked about those pesky, annoying squirrels that were taunting me and draining our bank account with their voracious, unstoppable appetites. Truly, I wouldn't mind feeding them if they EVER got full. But they don't. They eat and eat and eat and invite their friends in to do the same. Then they hang on and swing on the feeder evidently trying to get it to fall while reaching their nasty little paws in and swiping out every seed and nut they can get their hands on.

Maybe it's because I once heard them described as rats with fluffy tails that I started to turn against them. I know when we first moved here I felt kind of left out because we didn't have squirrels. And when I spotted this little guy ten years ago I thought he was one of the cutest little animals EVER.

So cute that this was one of my favorite pictures for a long time. But their over population and their rude, annoying habits have finally gotten the best of me. They caused me to get so irrational that when I had my shoulder surgery, I asked Mr. Right if, in lieu of flowers, he'd get me a live squirrel trap. He didn't.

His solution was to buy bird seed that the squirrels wouldn't be interested in and that worked kind of. But it turns out that some of my favorite birds weren't interested in it either.

So when I was well enough to shop and carry something in my unaffected hand, I bought one myself. It's a Hav-A-Hart live animal trap. What could be wrong with that? I do have a heart - really.

So we set the trap. A couple of days later there was a frantic little squirrel in it. Since Mr. Right was working a double that day, I took the little guy to what appeared to be a very squirrel-friendly environment with water and lots of trees and even other squirrels and set him loose. It felt good but bad. I was oh so glad that he was gone but I worried that he was nervous. (I swear he cried in the car on the way to his new home.) I worried that he wouldn't get along well with the other squirrels in the area and that he'd have a hard time acclimating to his new environment.

But at the first opportunity (the next evening), I asked Mr. Right to reset the trap. Sure enough we caught another one. And I felt better about taking him to the same habitat where hopefully he'd hook up with the old friend that I released there a couple of days prior.

We set the trap again. Before I went to Physical Therapy that morning I checked the trap and it was empty. I came home in mid afternoon and it looked like we'd caught another one - a really big one this time. So the minute Mr. Right got home, I told him we needed to release the large squirrel we'd caught. He agreed and we went out for a closer inspection and that big old trap was fur from front to back and top to bottom - solid fur.

I told Mr. Right that I didn't know what it was but it wasn't a squirrel and I thought it was dead. Then the raccoon's ear twitched and I knew that we'd caught a real koi pond enemy. A raccoon can decimate a koi pond in no time. They're clever and determined and can circumvent almost every protection a human can install. They tear up plants, knock over and break any decorations in their path and eat koi. Or, if they're not particularly hungry, they just bite their heads off and leave the parts scattered around the pond. No, you don't want raccoons anywhere near your koi pond.

So we took him for a ride too. We went farther this time, at least four miles 'as the crow flies', and found a wooded area with a large water feature in the middle of it. As soon as we opened the door the big fellow backed out. He was absolutely enormous. Mr. Right swore he was as big as a dog. I'd say knee high when he was standing tall. He immediately took off through the woods, splashing right through the middle of the large swampy pond ......... on a bee line toward our house. We found out later that you're supposed to take them at least ten miles to preclude their eventual return. Ugh! I'm just hoping that he has trouble finding his way across the interstate and has a fear of large bridges.

So maybe those doggone pesky squirrels saved our koi pond. I don't know. All I know is that we've relocated two more squirrels and I'm not ready to stop. These varmints are country animals after all and shouldn't be in the city. Mr. Right knows of two friends who were severely bitten by squirrels. So I'm thinking the country is the place for them to be - away from people, especially children.

And if I have anything to say about it, that's where every squirrel for miles around will end up. We're at four and counting....