Gratitude Monday: big-screen kitty TV

I’m not even going to talk about how last week ended. Instead I’ll just mention that I’m very grateful for the view from my living room onto my patio and birdfeeder.

I basically armor-plated the birdfeeder pole to discourage squirrel attacks. But then discovered that I’d somehow broadcast a welcome signal for bully birds. (That's not my term, BTW; all the bird-expert sites call them that.) I don’t know what they are, exactly, but they took over the feeder, gobbled most of the seed and threw the rest onto the grown for the squirrels.

I consulted Google on how to discourage them, and came up with an interim solution: safflower seed, which the big guys don’t like (further down the road, I’ll add a caged feeder that keeps them out while allowing the smaller birds in).

So we’re back to titmice, nuthatches, finches, sparrows and others feeding, even though they toss a lot of the stuff on the ground. In the past couple of days, the cardinals have decided that they can land on the feeder instead of the ground.

(Note the torpedo squirrel baffle to the left. Yes, that's what it's called. And it works. The other day I watched a squirrel put its front paws on the base of the pole as it gazed up into the torpedo baffle. It thought about it for a while and then gave it up as a bad job. The baffle, BTW, is made out of steel. Which is one of the few materials that squirrels will not chew their way through.)

I especially get a kick out of the woodpeckers.

But I’m also enjoying the little chipmunks that skibble around—they definitely like the safflower seeds, too.

Today I’m grateful for the critters on the patio, and hoping they’ll give me strength for the week.