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!

___________________________

http://www.franstewart.com

Day #168 Rain, Rain, Rain

Other than a short break on Sunday, just long enough for me to dig up those hostas, it’s been raining since last Saturday, and I just read that it’s supposed to keep going, with thunderstorms no less, at least through Thursday.

Other than the inconvenience of trying to keep the bird feeders filled without getting the seed soaked, rainy days have never bothered me. All in all, I enjoy cloudy days and rainy days. Maybe it’s because I have vitiligo, a condition where there is little or no melanin in the skin, so there’s nothing to protect me from the burning rays of the sun. I go through most of the year with long sleeves or a sunbrella. Yes, that’s a word. I invented it.

The floods in 2009 weren’t any fun, but my neighborhood was safe, even when the creek that runs through my back yard grew from a gentle two feet wide to a raging torrent that I measured (after the floods were over) at more than 50 feet wide. It was easy to measure. The plants were all bent sideways

But now, with my bees arriving in a couple of weeks, I’m beginning to see rain in a different way. If my bees were here, now, in all this rain, at the end of winter with their honey stores somewhat depleted before the strong nectar and pollen flows begin, they’d be pretty unhappy, fairly restless, and possibly awfully hungry.

Think about it. If you can’t fly in the rain because the water weighs down your wings, and you’re stuck in one room with 20 or 30 thousand sisters, wouldn’t you get a bit grumpy?

BEEattitude for Day # 168:

       Blessed are those who are patient, for they shall eventually get what they need.

One thing Fran is grateful for right now:

       The squirrel-guards on the birdfeeder poles. So far, they’ve kept the squirrels on the ground, cleaning up the fallen seed.   

http://www.franstewart.com

Day #93 Birdseed for breakfast?

Right at the moment, which happens to be 10 a.m. on a very snowy, schools-closed, roads blocked, skylights covered, January 10th Monday morning (this is one of the blogs I wrote ahead of time in case the power goes out later today), I'm sitting at the table that nestles into my bay window watching the birds. I have lots of feeders out in the front yard, and those are mobbed this morning. I went out just after dawn and set a big tray of seed on the five or six inches of snow that fell last night, so the ground-feeders would have something to eat. As soon as I came back in the house, the first brave bird descended, checked out that unusual object, and discovered FOOD. Within moments a hoarde of birds fluttered around it, warming their tummies and my heart.

So, although I've never fed the birds on my back deck, not particularly wanting to encourage the leaving of bird fertilizer on the wooden planks, this morning was an exception. I swept away a swath of snow near the door, used the broom handle to write my grandchildren's names in a stretch of untouched snow, then scattered a few handfuls of seed on the bare flooring, wondering how long it would take the birds to find this new food source. By the time I walked from my back door to the bay window, they'd found it.

Cardinals, titmice, towhees, wrens, chickadees, and a few others I can't identify. Even a downy woodpecker stopped by to investigate the goings on.

Now Daisy, her whiskers twitching, is perched on the corner of the table, quivering. No wonder I don't have a TV. This is much more interesting.

Next year, if it snows again, I'll be able to look out on my deck and see the birds and the bees. Hmm...

BEEattitude for Day # 93:

       Blessed are those who feed the birds, for their ears and hearts shall be filled with singing. 

One thing Fran is grateful for right now:

       Wild Birds Unlimited, where I buy all my birdseed 

http://www.franstewart.com/