Crafty Acrobats

Their cuteness is the only thing that keeps me from wanting to keeeel them! They are a pox and a scourge, I tell you! For six months, this feeder was one of two I could safely put any kind of seed in without having it nommed-in-no-time by these gorram grey bandits. Now it, too, has fallen to the furry ones, and shall from here on forward be filled exclusively with safflower seed, which is the ONLY thing the squirrels ignore. I don't know why this is, they are elsewise omnivorous: rock-stale bagels, cast-off Doritos, and browning limes are consumed with equal ardor. (I don't begrudge the grubby little vermin any seed that falls on the ground, and the DH always scoops out his rolls and bagels, so they get the nice fresh insides of those, as well as fresh apple cores and whole, wrinkly apples we didn't finish.) Nice fresh safflower seed? They couldn't care less about it, and thank heavens for that! Now I just need to get the local garden centers and pet stores to stock plain safflower as well as those squirrel-friendly mixes. Otherwise, I'll be buying plain safflower online, and that means 50-lb. bags. Oh dear.

Talk To The Tail!

I scolded this guy for scarfing up the birds' breadcrumbs this morning. He took issue with that. You talkin' to ME?!

I don't see anysquirrel else here, so you must be talkin' to me.

But man, I ain't got time to waste talkin' to you. I'm out.

You Gonna Eat That?

Are those nuts? They look like nuts. In fact, they look like almonds. Are they almonds? Are they your almonds? I don't find almonds around here too often...they look good. Are they good? I bet they're good. I remember having almonds once, and they were good. Sure would be great to have some almonds again sometime, but you know, not much around here but acorns....acorns are okay, of course, but they're not almonds. Once in a while it'd be nice to break up the monotony of...what? oh no, I couldn't, I mean, you shouldn't be encouraging me, I could have rabies...okay maybe just a handful.

Jamaican Wildlife Tour

Yesterday we found ourselves with an hour to kill before starting our evening shifts at the library, and it was such a beautiful day, the DH and I decided to walk up to Captain Tilly Park, on Highland Avenue, next to Jamaica High School. It's a badly-littered nine acres of water, greenery, and playground equipment that nevertheless serves parents and children, lunchers (like the chap in grey above), and even a few runners seeking a breath of air and a place to stretch their legs. The pond needs an aerator to keep down the algae, and unfortunatly, that piece of equipment is, for some reason, moored by two ugly, broken-down, red plastic barrels with the word "danger" unevenly hand-lettered on them in white paint. Despite its visual flaws, the park has a lot of what wildlife wants: water and fallen, rotting tree trunks offering food and shelter. Of course, we brought cameras. (The photo of the monument was taken by Ken.)