It’s bird feeder time again, and it always seems to attract more squirrels. I have things set up with a feeder that’s pretty good at keeping them out. It’s spring loaded and the weight of a squirrel closes the access.
But I will also sometimes put out seeds on the railing of our deck.
First, some house finches. I get more of these than any other bird:
House Finches
I also seem to have a few black-capped chickadees around:
Black-capped Chickadee
You can see the seed in its beak. Also here:
Black-capped Chickadee
The house finches just sit there and crack and eat the seeds, but chickadees have a different behavior. They always take their seed and fly to an isolated location to deal with it. Here’s one in our tulip tree:
Branching Out
Finally, as I said, the seeds on the railings attract squirrels, and I really don’t expect otherwise. So here are a couple of shots of the squirrel that visited yesterday.
Squirrel
They are pretty cute. But they’re also (pretty much) just large rats with fluffy tails. 
Squirrel Again
You too,eh? I enjoy feeding the squirrels in my yard. The only down side to these guys is they are distructive. I put out a squirrel box and would you believe it, they broke the lid off of it.