We will call one Rudolph and the other Twiggy!

Growing up my grandfather always fed the birds at his house and he would do battle with the squirrels every winter. He got electrified bird feeders, he got barbed bird feeders, he got ones that looked like space ships and one that looked like something no bird on earth would go near. He would bring them home with the look determination in his eye, elated because this bird feeder had a "no squirrels" warranty. There would be no squirrels that winter! Off he would go and hang his bird feeder. He would wait for the squirrels and laugh when they would fall off of his bird feeders. It really was an obsession for him. Ever seen Caddyshack? Yeah - you got the picture...

In the end all of these bird feeders only succeeding in making smarter squirrels and my grandfather finally admitted defeat and said that the squirrels gotta eat too.

We inherited quite a collection of bird feeders with the new house. Most of them look like houses and hang but one is the silver dome kind that is supposed to keep the squirrels out. Over the weekend Jeff bought bird food, I filled all of the feeders Sunday night, and we waited.

The first animal on the scene in the morning I found to be somewhat shocking. There in my back yard, 20 feet from my back door stood Rudolph and about 4 of his reindeer friends. Rudolph was rubbing the silver dome bird feeder up and down shaking out all of the bird seed. To my surprise he and his 4 reindeer friends began to eat all of the bird food off of the ground. Deer 1, bird feeder 0.

All of the birds started to show up - we had a woodpecker, both male and female Red Cardinals, male and female Blue Jays, quite a few Dove, and some other birds that I have yet to identify.

I have been sick for the past few days so between naps and being woken up by my Blackberry I have taken to watching the birds. Rudolph has not been seen since Monday morning, but all of the usually suspects have been munching...

This afternoon I got the first laugh I have had in days...



And we will call him Twiggy!