my dad put up a sweet birdfeeder a few weeks ago, and apart from the squirrels feeding on the fallen seeds i haven’t seen any birds. one theory is the birds haven’t found it yet. another is that the feeder is in the wrong location, at the wrong height, or something. another is that it’s the wrong food for the kind of birds around here. another is that the vultures control the skies in the area.
the bird food is all thistle seeds (a.k.a. nyger seeds). according to the bag:
Nyjer seed is a treat specially suited for feeding Goldfinches, Pine Siskins and other small beaked birds.
fun fact:
The American Goldfinch is mostly monogamous, but a number of females switch mates after producing a first brood. The first male takes care of the fledglings while the female goes off to start another brood with a different male.
rodent update: no squirrels caught yet with those darn havahart traps. those are some smart buggers. we’re getting some estimates from roofers about insulating the attic/closing up the entryways. only one mouse caught since the 5 mice caught a month ago. this one was discovered in the basement.
(i just returned from “disposing” of the little gray guy, a.k.a. offering it to the vultures/foxes in the backyard. the mouse had been dead for almost a week and i was very nervous about seeing a decomposing mouse, but surprisingly, it looked about the same as a mouse that had been dead for only a few hours. maybe because it is dry and cool in the basement. i would not want to clean up a week-old dead mouse in july.)
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now that it’s cold out (but still warmer than usual) i’ve seen a few different kinds of bugs hanging out inside. two weeks ago i started seeing these:
with the help of the old national audubon society field guide to the mid-atlantic states, i determined that the above is some version of a stink bug (acrosternum hilare) and this:
is a small milkweed bug (lygaeus kalmii) note: i’m not sqeamish about touching bugs (except earwigs and silverfish) plus, this one crawled onto my hand of its own accord. also this picture just looks weird in general, like a butt. it’s not i swear.
both of these bugs are way out of season, even for this climate. i wonder if the wacky weather/being indoors is to blame for that.
now those kinds of bugs are gone. i found a dead one after returning from new year’s travels. but instead, there are many fruit flies around the house, attracted to pools of water in the cat dish, on the sink, in the fruit bowl, etc.
