The Bane of My Existence

Project 365 - February 9

It is now February 10. I would have posted this picture on the right day, February 9, but I was too worn out from spending the entire day chasing squirrels away from my birdfeeders.

I know squirrels have to eat, but at the risk of offending PETA, I have to say that nothing frustrates me more than trying to keep the squirrels away from the birdseed.

Here's my thinking on the matter: God created squirrels with an innate desire to gather nuts in the fall and store them away for their winter food. Since we are surrounded by woods here, I am assuming there are plenty of nuts/acorns/whathaveyou for them to gather. So when the squirrels visit my feeders in the winter, they are leaving behind a storehouse of food that they are either hoarding or bored with.

God did not make birds, however, with the same instincts, and they do not store away food for the winter, relying instead on their Heavenly Father to feed them (Matthew 6:26). Every seed the squirrels take from my feeder, they're taking directly from the mouth of a bird that has no other source of food.

I wouldn't mind sharing with the squirrels and giving them a little treat once in a while (I mean, how long can even a squirrel be happy with just acorns?), but they aren't satisfied till they've emptied the entire feeder. They also aren't that into sharing, which isn't exactly endearing; there were 5 squirrels in my yard yesterday, chasing each other away before attempting to mount the feeders, at which time I would chase the winner away. It was quite the game, for all of us.

Now that I think of it, I shouldn't be too hard on them...they sound a lot like us, don't they? Of course, it's hard to be sympathetic to them when one just now bounced up on the porch and scared away the finches and chickadees again. I've got to run...I have some chasing to do. I can see I'm going to have to reimplement my squirrel relocation program soon.