When we first started seeing squirrels in the yard, we fed them peanuts in the shell. I would toss some peanuts out onto the patio and they would eat them, but the blue jays would also fly down and steal some away. I was happy when Ned built a shelf in the bush next to the house, where we can put walnuts for the squirrels and where the birds apparently don't see them.
We have been feeding squirrels walnuts on this little shelf for a couple of years and I've been surprised that I almost never see blue jays any more,
Now we have a new squirrel, who started out as a baby, just having left the nest, and was learning how things go. He was afraid if I came out to put nuts on the shelf, so I tossed a few nuts onto the patio. In literally seconds, the blue jays were there eating them. It's like they have been sitting in the trees watching for years hoping I'll toss nuts out again.
We also have a rat who runs by the back door and around the trunk of the tree with the nuts, looking to see if any nuts have fallen onto the ground. Bubba pretty much leaves the squirrels alone, but he's started chasing the rat and barking forever because the rat hides on the ground, under things, rather than in a tree like the squirrels do.
Yesterday, the squirrel was begging for nuts and I took a handful and put them on the shelf. As he does, he got scared and ran to another bush, but almost immediately the blue jays were in the tree eating the nuts. All these years and the birds haven't noticed and now they are flying into the bush and eating the nuts again, PLUS, the rat, whom I have never seen climb the tree, has figured out that there are nuts and he has started climbing the tree to get the nuts.
Today, I put out a handful of nuts and the birds were there right away, but the squirrel scared them and started eating the nuts when the rat also climbed up and I'm not sure who got the nuts, the squirrel or the rat.
I'm not happy having the rat around. I don't mind having rat. I don't want to kill him, but I'm afraid that he will be easy for Bubba to catch and I don't want Bubba catching a rat. I'm also afraid that he will figure out how to get in the house via the dog door. Ned catches mice at the place where he works and moves them out to the greenery nearby. I'm hoping that when he gets home he'll be able to set up a trap that will catch the rat and that he can move him somewhere far away from houses.
_________________________________________________________________________________
PHOTO OF THE DAY
No comments:
Post a Comment