Day #323 Night-time Cleanup Crew

Birdfeeders are messy. All around them, birds scatter seeds, feathers, and the end products of digestion. That’s what they do in my front yard. It’s okay, though. I have a clean-up crew who come around every night, 24/7. They never take a day off. They never complain. They keep the area under my “squirrel-proof” birdfeeders looking (relatively) tidy.

And I don’t have to pay them!

Last night I went out to bring in the feeders—because if I don’t, the cleaner-uppers climb the pole and empty them for me—and heard scrabblings up the trunk on the majestic tulip poplar that stands near my front door.

I stood still and waited. Within seconds a black-masked little face peeked around the trunk about ten feet off the ground.  Before I could say, “Good evening, little friend,” a second face poked its way over the first one’s shoulder.

Two nights ago, I remembered after I was practically asleep that I’d forgotten to bring in the feeders. I barged out the front door without thinking and startled a possum on my front porch. She cleans up the niger seeds the goldfinches drop.

During the day, pigeons and doves and other sorts of ground-feeders pick up what the raccoons and the possums miss.

And the daddy-longleg spiders inside the house clear up any ants who find their way inside.

Life is good.

BEEattitude for Day # 323:

       Blessed are those who take the time to observe what we animals do and who appreciate us, for they shall reap the benefit of our activity.

Coming Soon: a raffle, so your dog might be in my next book!

Details on September 1^st!

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http://www.franstewart.com

Day #190 The Birds and the Bees and the Raccoons

I’ve been feeding birds for decades, and they still fly off in fright whenever I open the door or step onto my porch. I don’t mind that, since their instantaneous flight is a survival mechanism.

When I lived in Vermont, we used to feed the raccoons, who would trustingly come right up onto our deck. One even crawled into my lap one day. I do NOT recommend this. When I think of the length of his teeth as he examined my face, I get goose bumps. It was a stupid thing to do. But, like most twenty-somethings, I thought I was invincible.

The sad thing was, within two years those 22 raccoons we’d been feeding on a regular basis were gone. I’m sure that when we taught them not to be afraid of humans, they forgot their instinctive tendency to flee or hide, so 22 Vermont hunters soon sported raccoon tails in their dead animal collections. I regret that exceedingly, because the raccoons were so very trusting.

The bees don’t fly away when I step onto the deck, nor do they even seem to pay much attention to me. But Tuesday I went out there to take out the two screws the H&L Bee Farm guy had used to make sure the lid wouldn’t come off as I drove the bees home.

The bees let me take out the one at the back end of the hive. But when I stepped up to the side, to reach the one on the front edge, the guard bees simply were not happy with me. I got the screw about an eighth of an inch up, and then a guard bee bumped my head.

“Okay, ladies,” I said. “We’ll do this in increments.”

I figure that if I can raise that screw one-eighth of an inch a day, it’ll take me just a little more than a week to get it out.

I’m okay with that. Let them protect their hive. And stay safe.

BEEattitude for Day # 190:

       Blessed are those who learn what we try to teach them, for we shall not sting them.

One thing Fran is grateful for right now:

       The filtered sunlight shining through the trees as I write.   

http://www.franstewart.com