I totally forgot to mention, while I was outside weeding today, three deer came running out of my next door neighbor's yard, crossed the street, then disappeared into the woods behind the yard across the street. I live on a busy road and the deer stopped traffic, which kindly waited for the third deer, lagging somewhat behind the other two.
I wouldn't have seen them except the dogs did, and went nuts with the barking. I thought it must be a jogger and turned around to look, and there were the deer. Wow. That's the closest I've ever been to wild deer except for seeing them on the roadside while I was driving my car at night. We've seen deer on other parts of Cole Mill before, mostly near the golf course, but never right here.
In other wildlife news, I made an attempt at squirrel proofing our bird feeders. Georg bought a domed baffle which I put up over the little tube feeder. And I found some leftover bathroom tiles from our bathroom renovation and taped them inside the "squirrel-proof" feeder, covering the little holes that the squirrels have been using to get to the seed. Also we replaced the suet feeder, which the squirrels had knocked to the ground and eaten up, with new suet that has hot chilis in it. Apparently the birds can't taste the chilis but the squirrels can.
The red-bellied woodpecker has found the seed feeder. I didn't even know woodpeckers liked seed feeders but apparently they do. I've seen him on it every day for the past few days. And he's been hanging around a lot in the tree it hangs from. Maybe he'll build a nest there. Also there's a wren that keeps getting through the dog door onto the porch. Luckily he seems to have figured out how to get out as well. Making the wren more intelligent than my dog Thirteen, who can only get out the dog door, not in. Thirteen is a good dog but she's sometimes not very smart. Or should I say, there are inexplicable gaps in her problem solving abilities.
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