Shoe, fly, don’t bother me
Tuesday April 17th 2012, 10:01 pm
Filed under: Wildlife

The squirrels always watch me carefully when I reach for the sandals just inside the door: this means business. They’ll tense,  turn halfway so as to run but not taking their eyes off me, frozen and ready to explode in motion.

Because if I’m putting those sandals on it means I’m serious. I’m coming into their territory.

I put some suet out for the ground birds today and needed to run an errand and just really didn’t want it all to go to the bushytails while the towhees and wrens and juncos and golden-crowned sparrows got nothing . Hmm.

And so, for the first time, I tried putting those sandals outside to stand guard, remembering the chant of childhood: stinky feet smell my feet give me something good to eat.

Or not.

None of the squirrels would even come back to the patio, and an hour later the suet was untouched.  Somehow even the bluejay stayed away, and it’s been pretty aggressive lately (I assume while feeding nestlings).

Huh. Well, that worked!

I’ll have to keep it a novelty, though.


5 Comments so far
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Good job!

Comment by Sherry in Idaho 04.18.12 @ 7:43 am

cool! I do agree that the ongoing novelty will probably be required — the squirrels here are still trying to figure out why their favorite highway across the back yard has big gaps in it — they’re not so happy with having to walk on the ground!

Comment by Bev 04.18.12 @ 8:22 am

Oooh, the word from squirrel-ville is that lady is playing nasty, while the creatures in Bird-ville are applauding!

Comment by Don Meyer 04.18.12 @ 9:38 am

Cool! I have a plywood silhouette of a black cat that my uncle made, complete with a marble eye. First time I propped it up against a bench on the deck, my normally fearless outdoor cat was freaked out. He cautiously slinked to it, sniffing warily and wouldn’t get near it for an hour or so.

Comment by DebbieR 04.18.12 @ 9:59 am

A couple of weeks ago I made a mistake that caused an opposite reaction in an animal.

Scruffy, that good little dog, doesn’t wear a collar much around the house. I put it on him when we go for a walk.

I knew Marina was coming and would walk him. To make things easier for her, I put his collar on him early. Not a moment’s peace did I have until she arrived.

He watched me like a hawk (if you’ll pardon the expression), jumping about. Panting. Standing at the door making wheedling noises.

I learned my lesson.

Please give Parker an extra hug from me.

Comment by RobinM 04.19.12 @ 2:11 pm



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