I can't believe how dangerous my backyard has become for birds. Just before dark I was looking out the back window when a neighborhood cat crept across the yard and grabbed something beside my air conditioning unit. I went out the side door in time to see the cat carry away a small dark grey bird. Hard to id the bird but I've had several juncos feeding in that area lately so I assume that's what it was.
And I'm sad to report that two of my squirrels may be close to nervous breakdowns! (well, ok, not THAT sad). Since my hummingbird feeder is put away for the winter I decided to hang the regular feeder from the tether so the squirrels couldn't get at it. Works great and it's really funny watching them trying to figure things out. Incidentally the tether is made from that blue twine from Ikea. Fantastic stuff, really strong, survived at least two raccoon attacks on the hummingbird feeder before I raised it out of their reach!
