Where all the birdseed goes

Peeking Over

Haha!  This weekend I went outside and saw this sunflower peeking over from my neighbor's yard.  It is full size but is along the edge of their house across an otherwise empty yard twice as big as mine, which is why the perspective makes it look so tiny in the photo.

Ever get the feeling you're being watched?

Hmmm... now I want to grow sunflowers too!  They're so cheery.  But I have a feeling that Scrub Jay would peck the heck out of it before I could harvest anything (which is what is happening to a friend's sunflower this week)... he already shakes all the smaller seed out of his bird feeder to get to the sunflower seeds, and is pecking apples off the tree.

Feeding the cat

I have been slowly trying to win Grumpy Cat's affections with tuna over the past month.  It is working!  He approached me of its own free will this morning, and let me pet him for almost 5 seconds, so he's been rewarded with tuna. Alternatively, I have become predictable and have been rewarded with minor petting privileges for bringing the tuna. BWAHAHAHAHA!

Grumpy Cat prefers Sea Chicken

It was pretty cute... I left the door open as I went to get the tuna, and when I turned around he was patiently waiting inside the house. When I noticed, he went "OH #@%$!" and became airborne in a mad dash outside to patiently wait.  Initially Grumpy Cat hadn't come over for tuna this morning, he'd come over to stare obsessively at the bird feeder. I didn't think about the bird feeder being also doubling a cat feeder... hmmm. After a full belly, he's not so interested in birds anymore though.  Later we napped under the cool shady wisteria-covered porch together (well, within 3 feet of each other)... it was pretty nice, and I ended up with leaves in my hair yet again.  :)

Full belly = Less-Grumpy Cat

Soon... soon I will have a feline minion!  Maybe he'll help me keep tabs on Scrub Jay.

Rogue Jay

I have been saddened that the apple tree, heavy with fruit, has decided that it is TOO heavy with fruit. It's expected that they'll naturally prune themselves if you don't prune them (it has been recommended that I trim the bounty to just two apples per cluster, but I didn't), especially if the tree is under-watered. And so, I have been watering the drip line (the circle around the edge of the tree branches, which is where the most absorbent parts of the roots are), in hopes that it will stem the fall.

All of the apples which have fallen thus far.

And then, Scrub Jay visited while I was outside by the bird feeder. He cawed his typical greeting, which often means “it's 6am on a weekend and the bird feeder is empty, I will do this until you wake up and feed me!” He looked at me, the bird empty feeder, me, the empty bird feeder, and then flew to the apple tree. He looked back to be sure that I was watching, and with two swift pecks he violently “liberated” an apple from the branch, and it plunked loudly to the ground. He looked back at me and tilted his head in a “there's more where that came from” and flew away.

I haven't been keeping up with the demands placed on the bird feeder. I am being punished by the bird. What a wise bird.

>.<

A Better Wasp Solution

This weekend, a lady came by to say that she was spraying for pests (primarily wasps, and also rats) at 8 (out of 18) houses on our court, and she wanted to offer us the low, low price of $60 to spray our house too.  First of all... spray chemicals in my nice organic yard and near the food garden?  HECK NO.  Secondly, there are easier and cheaper ways to lower the wasp population if they're bothersome, like using homemade wasp traps, or putting on protective clothing and knocking nests down with a long stick before the grubs mature. 

Or you could always use the predator method!  A few days earlier, this bird tweeted at me from the top of the fence for a few minutes (and I tweeted back, of course) until I approached, then it flew to the neighbor's eave and immediately back to the fence with a wasp nest in its beak.  It was almost like it was saying "Hey lady!  C'mere!  I wanna show you a trick!"  I had time to grab the camera and take a video for you!  If anyone knows what kind of bird this is, please speak up... I've always called this type of bird a "blue jay" but looking for pictures online makes me think it is a "western scrub-jay" instead.

Jay eats a wasp larva.

There are two birds of this type who visit regularly for the hanging bird-feeder which I keep full of songbird seed... one is always interested in grabbing seeds from the feeder which looks much more difficult, and the second bird is always more interested in picking up primarily the sunflower seeds that have fallen to the ground.  Bird #1 tends to watch me a lot and is more vocal and friendly and sometimes comes by himself.  It's probable that this was the same bird, especially if it was willing to go through so much effort for a bug!

I will say this... I'm worried that my new bird friend will go for another delicious wasp treat and find out too late that it's been drenched in poison.  I'll keep my seed feeder and the water dish full, and hope the clean food fulfills his needs.