#1 · Sep 24, 2008 19:34 UTC
Until I really know where I'm going to end up living and have the job situation in cruise-control, I've decided not to have any pets (just one less issue to deal with right now). So, for the moment, the closest thing I have are a few local squirrels that I feed on my deck. I've got a few "regulars" but two fairly young ones are the most often visitors. They've gotten to the point that if the bowl is empty they will wait until they see me then come up to the door and look in at me, usually on their hind legs. When I go out they instinctively want to run but they control it and only go about ten feet away. They really do act like little kids while they watch me pour some food in the bowl. The male likes to stand up on his hind legs and crain his neck to see what I'm putting in there (you can almost hear him thinking "Oh boy! Oh boy!).
Anyway, today I was out there filling the bowl and the young male was off to the side near the deck rail doing just what I described when a whirl of feathers came by. If he wasn't just a little bit under the deck bench he would have been lunch! Instead he ran under some stacked patio chairs while the attacker, a beautiful sparrow hawk landed on the rail about to make a second try. Since this was only a few feet away from me, I walked towards the bird telling it to scram but it didn't want to let the chance go. I got about two feet away before it flew down the rail about five feet (still looking for some "fast food"). I had to "encourage" it to buzz off before it finally did. The poor little squirrel was chittering up a storm behind me (they never chitter at me, but I always know when someone else or a cat is in the yard).
He waited about 5-10 minutes to come out of his hiding place, but is now happily chomping away at the bowl and I now have a pretty graphic idea of what may have happened to some of the others I don't see any more!
Here's a picture that's close to what the bird looked like, but this one was bigger (easily 20" tall) and with really gorgeous defined coloring (much better than the picture).
Anyway, today I was out there filling the bowl and the young male was off to the side near the deck rail doing just what I described when a whirl of feathers came by. If he wasn't just a little bit under the deck bench he would have been lunch! Instead he ran under some stacked patio chairs while the attacker, a beautiful sparrow hawk landed on the rail about to make a second try. Since this was only a few feet away from me, I walked towards the bird telling it to scram but it didn't want to let the chance go. I got about two feet away before it flew down the rail about five feet (still looking for some "fast food"). I had to "encourage" it to buzz off before it finally did. The poor little squirrel was chittering up a storm behind me (they never chitter at me, but I always know when someone else or a cat is in the yard).
He waited about 5-10 minutes to come out of his hiding place, but is now happily chomping away at the bowl and I now have a pretty graphic idea of what may have happened to some of the others I don't see any more!
Here's a picture that's close to what the bird looked like, but this one was bigger (easily 20" tall) and with really gorgeous defined coloring (much better than the picture).