Feeding The Birds (And The Squirrels) [VIDEO]

I have always had bird feeders.

It dates back generations in my family. My grandmother on my mother's side had bird feeders outside her kitchen window. When a bird would come and sit to eat while Grandma was doing dishes, she would always greet it with a cheerful, "Hello Bird."

My mother has bird feeders everywhere at her house. In my childhood, I remember the feeder out the back kitchen window. I remember winters when the show was so deep we would have to put on snow shoes to get out there to refill it. My mother's feeders attracted zillions of chickadees and lots of other lovely birds as well, all winter.

In the summer, she has hummingbird feeders everywhere, and is visited annually by several mating pairs who use my parents' yard as their Berkshire vacation home.

They can't keep seeds out year round anymore in the Berkshires because of the return of the black bear population. There have been several times (including one somewhat close encounter of my own), when they discovered that the bears had woken up from their winter's nap by the destruction of a feeder.

As soon as my husband and I bought our house, I got a bird feeder. Of course, it is all live and learn, and over the years I figured out what species are near us and what species are not. Hummingbirds, for example. I don't even want to try and figure out how much money I have spent over the years on hummingbird feeders and food, all to no avail. So I have given up.

As for the others, we have a pair of cardinals, zillions of sparrows, nuthatches, Carolina wrens, other wrens, and some woodpeckers.

Oh, and did I mention the squirrels? When we built an addition on our house a few years back, my mother advised that we put a bay window at the end, overlooking the driveway. There is a lovely old maple right here, and the perfect spot for the bird feeders. I have one for thistle and one for black oil sunflower seeds and two suet feeders.

And the two fattest squirrels in the world. Not to mention the most acrobatic, flexible and determined, as they spend great time and energy working out ways to circumvent the "squirrel-proof" aspect of the feeders, or hang upside eating the suet.

A couple of weeks ago I threw out the old feeders and got two new ones, and I did not shell out the dough for the squirrel-proof kind. So our squirrels have been in a feeding frenzy, and their insanity in turn leads to some fun behavior by the dog. She considers those two woods-rodents to be invaders even more heinous than the mailman.

I don't begrudge the squirrels their snacks - although I do shoo them away often so as to give our feathered friends a turn at the bar - but it has actually turned out to be great fun to watch the dog go nuts. And she has learned the word "squirrel." Say it, and she heads straight for the window, on full alert.

To paraphrase my grandmother, "Hello Squirrel."