My sister-in-law caught it in a glass and put it outside. I was amazed but felt no shame at what I would've done to that wasp had I had more courage.
I admit it, I do not love all of God's creatures equally.
In this current winter of my discontent, the piles of snow and ice stand at least two feet high and can support my weight. The squirrels have discovered they can jump up to the baffles and then either climb up one of the poles to the open house-like feeder or, as seen below, grab the end of the long feeder's "squirrel-proof" cage on another pole and feed its furry face.
2014 - winter of my discontent (Margo D. Beller) |
As the snow falls there are a lot of birds hitting the different feeders I have out. They, too, have it tough if not tougher - they can't scratch at soil for insects unless they are in an area where the snow is ever so slightly starting to recede. Especially when the temperatures plummeted from the "polar vortex," they needed what I could put out.
With my seed and suet supply diminishing from all the hungry birds, I don't take kindly to squirrels helping themselves in the feeders (picking up what the birds drop to the ground, fine).
Even within the birds there are some I take pains to shoo off the feeder. Starlings, for instance. They can't crunch the large sunflower seeds the way a finch or cardinal can, but they do sit in the feeder and keep the other birds away. One starling is bad - a flock is far worse. Worse still is when starlings mix with the larger grackles and redwing blackbirds and hit the backyard at once. At that point I take in the feeders and wait. There can be thousands of birds.
This snow isn't going anywhere fast, even with temperatures above freezing at the moment and projected to stay that way for most of this coming week.
Front walk/trench (Margo D. Beller) |
As I expected, one squirrel found it easier jumping to the long feeder on one pole than trying to get to the house feeder on the other. She is eating and dropping seeds to her squirrel friends and those birds that crowd in. It is an accommodation I am making for them, even tho' once in a while I go out to scare her off.
What I am hoping is a Cooper's hawk or a redtail will swoop in and pick her off for a meal.
Cruel? Yes. But, hey, even these birds have to eat once a day.
And as with other unpleasant things, there are always more squirrels down the road.
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