The robin paid us a visit again today. Here he is perched on one of the empty rings of the dogs’ feeding stand. Does he look a little disappointed to you? I think he does. See, we used to feed the dogs outside because of the Pirate being practically toothless and the Princess being … um .. not perhaps as dainty an eater as a Princess ought to be. So when the dogs had finished eating and come back indoors the robin, and occasionally a blackbird, would fly down to see what they’d left, and dine on scraps of dog food – which isn’t actually that bad for them, as I understand it.
Sadly, since the mice have discovered that same buffet option, we’ve had to stop letting the dogs eat out there – or if we do, we clean up pretty quickly and pretty thoroughly when they’re done. It leaves nothing to attract the mice, but sadly nothing for the birds either.
Still, I did clean out and refill the bird feeder with seed mix today. They’ll have to make do with that.
And my little robin friend will have to refine his acrobatic skills.
We have cats and dogs, and since I’m one of those retards who worries about the birds starving in the winter, I always have a bird feeder and I also scatter it across the yard. I try to do it when all of our critters are inside otherwise they think I created a buffet table for them. It’s hilarious though, the cats and dogs sit at the glass sliding door and watch with their faces pressed up against the glass. It’s one of the few times everyone gets along, united in their need to go chase the birds outside.
JTs last blog post..FEED ME!
That’s funny! I can just see them doing that!
I used to scatter seed across the patio, but had to stop when we got rats! Yikes! You should have seen the size of them! We live right on the edge of the village and field mice are a fact of life, but rats – nope. Don’t want those! We had mice in the house when we first moved in. I was always trapping them and driving them miles away to release them. Concreting the downstairs floors fixed that problem, and I coped OK, it was just a nuisance. But if I saw a rat in the house, I think I’d freak out.
Mayby your cats help to keep the rodents at bay?
My Mum has edible doormice – Glis glis. They run around in the attic and in the walls and it sounds as if they are wearing jack boots. Now, my Mum is an animal lover, but they really are driving her nuts and there is very little she can do about it, since they are protected by law. Interestingly, the Romans used to breed them and eat them as snacks!
Don’t Bug Me!s last blog post..Not all pets are furry……..
lovely photo of your robin in your garden, really nice Jay!
your field mice look alot like ours, we call our deer mice and they have pink ears. we get lots of them in the fall trying to come in the house and garage. We have seen rats here too.
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DBM – I’ve known people with a similar problem with bats in the roof space. All bats are protected here, so there’s nothing at all you can do to evict them. And you can’t even use the attic as storage because you’re not allowed to do anything to disturb them, besides which, they’re filthy little devils and produce a lot of stinky waste. But I love bats, actually. We did have some in the roof of a house once and it was no problem because we didn’t use the space for storage, but if we’d even wanted to do repairs we’d have had to get permission first.
Dawn - thanks! A compliment indeed coming from you! The mouse pic is not so hot because the light was poor and the mouse was very quick. That was an opportunist point-and-shoot, and it’s amazing it came out as well as it did! Your deer mice sound pretty!
Delicious photo’s! Our birds and mice seem to prefer dining indoors thesedays. Humane mousetraps are all fine and well, but invisible elastic always drags Jimmy and his cousins back to the house after parole, and as for our conservatory, well it doubles as a wildlife aviory now. Our OCD cat never leaves her post there, which is a bit unfortunate, since our hound needs to pass through from time to time to reach his poo patch outside. Poor mutt gets sliced to ribbons on a daily basis. Happy days.
Shrinky – Thanks! Your poor dog! Did you tell him it’s not supposed to be that way round? He needs to stand up for himself – or perhaps you need to provide him with an armed escort?
I had the same dog-feeding/bird-feeding/mice-feeding problem. So now, I have a range of bird-feeders too – and, thankfully, the cats are sufficiently old to be happy just to watch from a discreet distance and no pouncing. However, we are very rural and very close to a farm and any number of barns and, unfortunately, when I looked out of the kitchen window a week or so ago, a rat the size of a house had climbed one of the slippery bird-feeder poles and was gorging himself . . .
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60 GO 16 – Clever little devils, aren’t they? I stopped feeding the birds altogether for a few years when a gigantic rat was seen shinning up a post, gnawing through the WIRE to remove a bag of peanuts and running off with the whole thing! And that was within six feet of our back door – far too close for comfort!
good story
sandykesslers last blog post..My cousin’s Dad a U S Navyman passed on this year .. His son sent me this
actually the clouds on my site are from National Geographic – rare cloud formations funny huh??SAy hello to the dogs for me
sandykesslers last blog post..My cousin’s Dad a U S Navyman passed on this year .. His son sent me this
Wow – that’s amazing, Sandy! I’m coming back over for another look!
Awwww … he’s so cute and he looks so forlorn! I love the way you write about it, Jay.
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lol, yes that bird does look a tad judgmental! lol. But he is adorable! Can’t say the same for the mouse tho
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Jenny – thanks! I’m sure he’ll stick around and find enough to eat. He’ll just have to work harder!
DM – I dunno, I think the mouse looks adorable too, I just don’t want him eating out of the dog bowls and pooping and peeing in them and spreading his little mousy diseases.
awesome picture of the bird, but that mouse is down right scary. can’t do it.
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Natural – LOL! Well, I know. Most people don’t like them, OR bugs, so reading my blog must be a severe trial! Thanks for sticking with it!