My bird-feeder platform (ground-above-my-feet) is servicing the unbeaten Pickering Rodent Marauders (squirrels and chipmunks) with little value for the birds that visit from time to time during a typical day. The Avian Allstars do not stand a chance of defeating the persistent Marauders because they are programmed by Mother Nature to take no prisoners. In other words, sharing is not their forte. Heck, they refuse to acknowledge that “share” is even a word. Not that I can speak rodent, at least not fluently, despite having a passing resemblance to some members of the family Rodentia. I like that name because it has a Shakespearean quality to it, don’t you think? Once again I’m getting dangerously close to hyperbole.
None of the rodents can scale the greased pipe that supports my platform so they have divined suitable detour routes, such as climbing the adjacent arbour and jumping onto the platform (squirrels) or working out a strategy to elevate their position through the tightly knit branches of the adjacent juniper bush and then jumping from there onto the seed platform (chipmunks). Even installing a nylon mesh against the juniper didn’t defeat the chipmunks for long, although they were perplexed by the intervening meshwork for a few days. Eventually they just climb higher, above the edge of the mesh and then jump from there. The result of all this is that I often just cover the seed spill with a rectangular oven pan, inverted and secured by a chunk of quartz. A brick didn’t work because the doves just dumped on it until it resembled a Jackson Pollack. It was probably in protest. Quartz is definitely better. Doves respect quartz and probably draw inspiration from it. Yah, doves are that stupid.
As an alternative bird feeder I re-installed my mock tree trunk and filled the chiseled-out void with seed -impregnated suet. Downy and Hairy woodpeckers wasted no time in finding the buffet. There is a Hairy on it right now. I re-greased the supporting pole and the inverted photo floodlight fixture attached to it being generous with the grease on its superior “umbrella” surface. I did not anticipate that Cardinals, Juncos and even a Song sparrow would also try to access the suet by perching on the little twig-like projection just below the wire mesh that covers the cavity in the trunk. The grid is fairly open and is not a serious obstacle for a virile woodpecker with attitude. Cardinals and sparrows visiting the trunk need to work a lot harder to get a reward.
I was hoping that one of the Red-bellied woodpeckers in the woodlot might visit the feeder-trunk but that has not yet happened and probably never will. I wish something new would visit and become truncated (read: intoxicated) by my efforts.
