Little Nature Stories: Red's Time of Day

My favorite little critter at his favorite time of day - just before sunset, when all the commotion has died down at the feeders. His only dinner companions are the cardinals who also prefer this quiet hour before dusk.

This cage feeder suits him just perfectly, as he can perch at the top:

Hang down over the edge:

Rappel down inside to find just the right seed:

And pop right back up again to feast:

I tell you, I never tire of watching the red squirrels who visit our feeders. I wouldn't think of shooing them off, or heaven forbid, trapping and moving them as some people do. Sure they eat their fair share of seed (as do their bigger gray cousins) but all God's creatures are welcome at our feeders. Well, I do draw the line at larger (or predatory) animals such as coyotes and bear. We've never had anything like that, though. Just raccoons once in a while and the occasional neighborhood cat. The cats I drive off with some hand clapping and the raccoons we photograph if we can. The coons eat a good bit, and sure they might drag off a suet cage now and again, but really, most of the critters in our little habitat play fair.

We stocked up on birdseed yesterday, and today we will clean up the feeding area and fill up all the feeders. I would like to do a post about the feeders we employ in our yard - what kinds and how many. This is a great time of year to get your feeders going again, so stay tuned!

In other nature news, I have organized a little nature study club for my homeschool group and our first meeting is coming up! We are meeting at a local nature preserve to walk and explore and discuss ... I am planning to hand out a scavenger list of "signs of fall" for the kids to use as they walk about the place (with sketchbooks or cameras in hand).

Our plan is to meet once a month at the same place and do some nature study all together. I have wanted to organize a club like this for some time now, and was gratified so many families were interested - 25 at last count! You can be sure I'll be posting all about our first meeting later this week. :)

Have a beautiful Sunday, everyone!