Since I’m extremely impulsive, I went out to Wild Birds Unlimited and bought an 18″ diameter baffle for above the main safflower feeder. It’s a clear plastic dome that hangs above the feeder so that (theoretically) the squirrels cannot drop down and feast on seeds. Thus far, I have yet to see any squirrels make an attempt at the newly armored feeder, as they have been at the tiny suet feeder. The suet feeder has no baffle protection, but suet is pretty cheap and I don’t use nearly as much during warm weather so I don’t care at this point. I really hope I can see a squirrel attempt to land on the baffle and fall off; that would really make my day. The birds have not really noticed that there is a baffle and have continued to feed at the safflower feeder. I grabbed some shots that I’ll upload when I get a chance. Basically I sat very still on a lawn chair near the feeders with my camera for 30+ minutes while various bugs fed on me. Then I moved to the inside of the car, rolled down the window, and waited like a hunter ready to shoot (my camera) for another 30 minutes. The zoom is only 3x on my digital camera, so I had to get pretty close.
I also picked up a dinner bell feeder. I’m using this one for fruit because I want to attract some orioles or other fruit eating birds. Right now it’s got some canned peaches in it. I have yet to see any birds feeding on the peaches, but I’m not too worried since it takes birds a while to find the food the first time. I put one of the large bright pink azalea flowers (from the bush next to the cottage) on the fruit feeder in hopes that the birds will notice it. I recently read that waxwings also eat fruit and that sometimes you will find a waxwing that appears to be docile and injured. However, you should probably leave these waxwings alone because they are actually just drunk from fermented berries! Beware of drunken bird rage!
This summer’s gonna be an interesting one, I can already tell. Bunky has some kinda federal judge clerkship thing that she’ll be doing this summer, so I’m gonna have a whole lotta time to do things like play FFXI, run and play basketball, and clean the fish tanks. The way I figure it, the whole experience will be like I’m retired, except I’ll still be working. One of the major plans I have, however, is to expand the buffet outside the cottage, while denying squirrel entrance. They eat all the food and rip up the wood on the bird feeder, and quite frankly I’m tired of it.
I have several things in mind. The first is a clear plastic baffle for the top of the main safflower feeder. The feeder already hangs pretty high above the ground (8 feet perhaps?) and I’ve moved it about 7 feet away from the trunk already. This means that the main way squirrels get to the feeder is by walking along the branch the feeder is hanging off, and dropping down. I am hopeful that this baffle will work, but I have to find one big enough. The other thing I want to add to the trees is a fruit feeder of some kind. My goal is to attract some orioles, and I’m not sure what the best way to do that is. I’m thinking that a boxed cage of some sort with orange halves might be good, since the squirrels can’t run away with the whole orange slice then, and the birds can peck at the fruit through the gaps. I’d love to try to build these contractions, but I don’t even have a power drill.
I’ve heard that studies have shown that hot pepper extract will deter squirrels without stopping birds. Apparently, however, it imparts a spicy taste to the birds. I’m not sure I want to know how the researchers found this out…
Today was one of the most beautiful days I’ve seen since coming to Virginia. The sky is perfectly clear, the sun is full and bright, and the temperature is crisp without being cold. It complements the blooming flowers and newly clothed trees very nicely.
Bunky and I finally went mini golfing this weekend. There’s this kinda neato looking mini golf place that we always drive by, and I had been harassed about it so often that I eventually just gave in. It was cheap for an hour of putting fun, I suppose. The course was rather tame (no windmills, or loops to putt through), but it was set in a fake mountain with a waterfall so there was more exercise value than your average mini golf course. Oh yes, and the whole place had a pirate theme, so there was a juggling pirate off to the side, and a cannon that was timed to “shoot” right before various spray fountains went off in the water. There was also this great cheesy tape that kept playing the whole time that spouted stuff like “Arrrr, you’ll never get me treasure, swabbie.” We were adventurous and chose the harder “Captain’s Course.” I picked a neon yellow golf ball, and she took purple.
On the Captain’s Course, there were water hazards, sand trap hazards made from faux wool, and annoying hurry-up-and-putt-already PDA couple hazards.
Sometimes events like this can turn into mindless, tedious fits of boredom, but Bunky and I usually like to turn them into contests with wagers involved. After Bunky got up 2 strokes, she decided that it would be fair if the loser was the winner’s slave for a day. Things started looking especially bad when I triple-bogey’ed a par 2 hole. But like Phil Mickelson at this year’s Masters, I was dazzling on the back 9 to take the Mini Golf Masters by 2 strokes. The amazing run of pars and birdies (with 3 near hole-in-ones) was completely demoralizing to my opponent, but it wasn’t until we tallied the score at a nearby Dairy Queen that we were sure who the winner was. I took a raincheck on the day of servitude to use after law school finals are over.
By the way, Dairy Queen is totally disgusting. It was my first DQ visit ever, and hopefully my last. WTF, it’s just cheap softserve ice cream and hotdogs with chilli!
In other mini news, Chiriri finally unlocked the bard job! After hours of meandering on a Chocobo, and listening to boring long speeches from a crusty old bard, Chiriri finished the quest and scored 5,100 gil. Woot, can’t wait to start singing and rocking. Bomb a-head! Your party time!
I have this old (cleaned) glass bottle that I use to collect spare change. It used to have shrimp cocktail dip, and at some point I washed it out and put coins in. Today, I finally decided that enough was enough; coins were overflowing from the top of the bottle, and even the imaginary metal surface tension couldn’t keep them in. So I put all the coins in a sandwich bag and headed over to the local Food Lion to use their Coinstar machine.
I had never used one of these funky green coin machines before, but the idea of a machine that will count all your useless pennies and nickels, and turn it into paper money has always appealed to me. It was now or never, and I braved the user-friendly instructions and dumped my coins in. The process was like magic; my 146 pennies, 33 dimes, and 18 nickels were suddenly distilled into a paper receipt that was worth a five dollar bill, a dime, and a nickel when given to the cashier. It was like 146 little Abe Lincolns joined forces to form a massive Voltron-esque $5 bill mega Abe Lincoln. The whole service was basically about fifty cents, and it was worth every useless penny.
Old Blogger | Kabitzin 4/30/2004 | 
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