Dear Pat,
I passed by your yard today and I noticed that you keep your grains and suet hanging outside.
Not a very well thought out idea, I would say. It was quiet as a graveyard when I came, but I had a suspicion so I waited. Just as I thought – 8 minutes passed and a band of little bushtits appeared and clung all over your suet like it’s theirs. There were maybe 20 of them, it was scary to watch.
Once they came, all other critters showed up from nowhere, I tell you, and they were after your food. Chickadees (Black-capped and Chestnut-backed), Song Sparrows, Juncos – even a bloody Downy Woodpecker, female, thought she had business there. There were some more fowls flying around, two young Eagles and a Hawk, this city has too many birds, too bad city council doesn’t do something about it, like trimming more of those trees and bushes, drying out the ponds.
There was also a small one with a metal-green shiny back, what was it, an Anna’s Hummingbird? This critter wouldn’t even be here this time of year if people like you wouldn’t leave their sugar water outside!
Just thought you should be aware,
Respectfully,
Sigal