It's an attack of the B-52s

With the new bird feeder and bird bath mentioned in an earlier post, I was a little worried there would be no customers. I should've known better.

By having an official bird feeder off the ground (the idea was to discourage predators), I thought it would also be good for keeping squirrels away from the sunflower seeds to give other critters a chance at getting some. Within 5 minutes of setting it up and filling it with mixed seeds, the squirrels figured out a way to raid the stash. So much for outwitting them. 

Band-tailed Pigeons have been coming to the critter station for years now. They are very large and I've nicknamed them the B-52s because they swoop in like bombers. They are so much fun to watch and there is a group of nearly 30 birds that come regularly. They know what time to arrive and if I'm late, they express their displeasure more politely than the blue jays and crows, but they let me know their disappointment. Interestingly, when I am on time, they don't bother to leave a tip. But then, neither do the blue jays, crows, doves, squirrels, assorted warblers and sparrows, and any other species dropping by. Let's just say my restaurant is a non-profit operation.

Well I needn't have worried about them not figuring out there is a second feeding area. On Tuesday I was able to catch this wonderful sight:

Pandemics and projects

I would be remiss in not mentioning the pandemic we're currently experiencing and everyone is trying to navigate in various ways. I am one of the fortunate ones who no longer have to rely on a workplace to do the right thing. I also have amazing neighbors who check on me frequently and one in particular who calls me any time she's in a store to ask me if we need anything. She has even braved Costco for us on a couple of occasions. And while the news keeps saying things are going to be opening in a measured way, my cranky self is very skeptical that things will be returning to any semblance of normal anytime soon.

With that in mind, I did do a couple of marathon sessions to make masks for us in view of the number of people who just plow through us when we're walking the big handsome Kuma fur-baby, or run up on us as we're trying to tame the overgrown weeds, bushes and jade plants along the foot path. We've even been to pharmacies and grocery stores where employees wore no protective gear whatsoever (that was before the decree that they are now required to). The masks aren't pretty in all their crumpled glory, but they are better than nothing. The problem is I'm running out of elastic and I realized I need to tweak the design a bit. I've wasted elastic by running it through a channel. I plan to take the elastic, cut it in half, and sew it on to the mask. While I do know how to sew, I'm really not that fond of doing it.

On a much brighter note, one of my gardening experiments took off amazingly this year. I took a few starts of this amazing ground cover (with permission of course) and stuck them in a pot about 2 years ago. I expected them to maybe fill the pot if I were lucky. Well, let's just say -- expectations were exceeded!

And my critter station is getting a real workout. If I were a hummingbird, dove, pigeon, crow, blue jay, and squirrel restaurateur, I'd be a bazillionaire by now. Of course, the second I walk around to the side to check on them, they scatter, but I did manage to get a fuzzy shot of a lone dove who refused to leave the seed pot. With everything blooming so beautifully, it's a cheery sight.