It was dark and oppressive all day long. Lots of thunder, a little wind, not much rain. (But a tiny bit.) The edge of one cloud rolled over us about 30 minutes ago.
Despite it being slightly wet all day, the finches are spending a lot of time at the birdbath. I'm getting a kick out of watching them.
In fact, I am enjoying them so much, I broke our decision not to feed the birds. It's not a big deal. I found a jar of seeds when I cleaned the pantry and decided to at least use it up. So I've just been putting a handful on the deck railing each morning. Last night the wind was blowing the seeds off, so I corralled them in a pot saucer.
Guess who found the seeds within just a couple of days. The chipmunk. I haven't been able to get a better picture of him.
He climbed right in and stuffed his cheeks full of every seed in the dish and took off.
This is the chipmunk that has been trying to come in the screen door. In fact, he can get in underneath it (twice last year- if it's the same one) and once this year. I've managed to scare him right back outdoors each time. But I decided I need a barrier because he might get in when I wasn't watching.
I have a board about 2 feet wide that just fits across the bottom of the opening. So far, this is keeping him out, although if he works at it, I'm sure he could duck under the screen door edge and jump over the board. To get on the deck at all he has to either make a leap of about 3 feet from the outside stairs, or climb up a window screen and leap about 2 feet. (Because the only access to the deck is through the house) I've watched him do both. Until I got a really good look, I was even contemplating if this was a small red squirrel because I didn't realize chipmunks were such good climbers. They tend to stay on the ground, although I've occasionally seen one higher in a tree.
One day, he climbed right up the screen door and hung there looking at me.
I am considering hanging the saucer on a cable that he can't climb down. That might slow him down for a while until he figures out how to leap to it. Probably not worth it for one jar of seeds that isn't even full any more.
I used to dream of having a small pond and a really wildlife-friendly yard- you know, one of those certified Backyard Habitats from the National Wildlife Federation. But I think I have enough wildlife already.
In other news: I did all the editing stuff and projects, but it wasn't a good day to work outside, so I cleaned the kitchen and spent some time on plant records. Makes me feel virtuous, like Archie Goodwin keeping the orchid records in the Nero Wolfe books. (But I do have pretty good records of the gardens.)
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