nichepoetryandprose

Our feeder has attracted some little space aliens!

In one of my recent posts, I talked about the Grey Squirrel and its marauding ways.  Now I have two more mammals to add to my list of bird-feeder pirates.

During the weekend, we went to the Co-Op and puchased a new squirrel-proof feeder.  It consists of a slim tube enclosed within a cage with the squares too small for the squirrels to squeeze through.  Raccoons can’t fit through those small holes either, but they can take the new feeder off its hook and just toss it off the deck!  Once they had cleaned out the spilled food, they began an assault on the older wooden feeder with its hoard of black sunflower seeds.

Just before I went to bed, I switched on the outer lights to see if the raccoons had returned and got a wild surprise.  Two little spacemen were cleaning the rest of the sunflower seeds from the feeder!  They looked like Red Squirrels, but were golden-brown in color, and had white undersides, a lot of extra folds of skin and big black ‘wombat’ eyes. 

Flying Squirrels!! 

We know the Northern Flying Squirrel (Glaucomys sabrinus)  lives in our grey woods, but we haven’t seen them for a while.  They not only look different, but move very differently from the Red Squirrels.  They are very, very fast and sort of flow and fold themselves across the surfaces they are on, a little like those ‘parkour’ urban acrobats who move fluidly over obstacles.  

 The two Flying Squirrels argued and bickered with one another and paid no attention to me as I opened the door to snap their photo.  

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spacemen in the bird feeder

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I missed the flash

the revolving light show

and high-pitched whine

just before the spacemen

(the Flying Squirrel Squadron)

set their coordinates on the feeder

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bickered and folded over landscape

fired lasers from their eyes

took a moment for a black  stare

at the earthling watching

and turned to complete the harvest

the sunflower seeds

craved by their planet

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©  Jane Tims  2011

one of the usual visitors to our feeder ... the Black-capped Chickadee (Parus atricapillus)