thistlechaser: (:P)
Beware them if you are flatbread or a small bird.

Or perhaps if you live in a dumpster.

I live in a large apartment complex. Among other features, we have trees and dumpsters. This means we have a lot of squirrels.

On one of my first days living there, a squirrel dropped a corn cob on my head. That would be bad enough if it hadn't been from the dumpster, so it was old, gross, and had been half-eaten by someone (and then further eaten by the squirrel). There had been enough kernels left on it that they fell down the back of my shirt. Yuck.

This morning, as I was approaching the dumpster to toss out a bag of trash, I saw a squirrel struggling with something. Whatever it was, it was as big as it was. As I got closer, I thought it was a slice of pizza, but as the squirrel wrestled it up the nearby tree, I saw it was one of those really big flatbreads. The squirrel will be able to feast for a week on it!

Once I arrived at work, I encountered another squirrel. It was crossing our parking lot, but unlike most squirrels, it was just walking instead of that bouncing-bounding they do. It had been holding something in its mouth, but again I couldn't tell what until I got closer. A bird. A dead bird. I had no idea squirrels ate meat! The bird was big enough and heavy enough that the squirrel was struggling to carry it.

Now I'm worried. Instead of just watching for trash to be dropped on my head, I have to be concerned that squirrels will drop out of the trees to eat me. Luckily I'm not nearly as tasty as leftovers from the dumpster. I hope.

thistlechaser: (Cat shrimp (hungry now?))
Of all the things that could fall out of the sky and hit me on the head, a chewed up corncob is one of the more surprising (and gross) ones.

I was walking to my car and I heard a noise overhead. We have tons of squirrels, so I hadn't thought much of it. Apparently this squirrel had taken a corncob out of the dumpster and pulled it into a tree to eat it... and dropped it on me. I'm still trying to decide if it was on purpose or not.

In non-corn news, the US government website is surprisingly entertaining to read. Pair it up with Google and you can make some interesting discoveries. The government has a page with information, warnings, etc about travel to other countries. For example, Afghanistan. I've spent three days reading about travel in the various countries in Africa and the Middle East (and a few random other ones, like China and India).

Where Google comes in is the results page when you search for "travel to (country)". (I did that each time to find the next page to read.) Either the government page came up first or travel sites/sales/information/etc pushed the government site down. It was an interesting way to be able to see how many people travel there. It wasn't related to obvious things -- some places with wars going on and some very dangerous places apparently still get a lot of visitors.

The government is surprisingly quick to reply to emailed comments, too. A couple country pages were jam-packed with typos, and it bugged me enough that I made a list and sent it to them. They replied the next business day! (I emailed Saturday, got a reply Monday morning.)

So, if you're bored and want to find interesting details about countries you rarely even think about, you can find a list of all the country sites here, or just google! It's a lot more interesting than you'd think it would be.

And lastly, remember what I said a week or so back about being okay with kids? I take it all back. They're horrible little monsters. Last night I caught the kids in the complex running at my window and barking to scare Ellie. Who in the world raised these kids? What's wrong with them? Luckily I had the window closed, but they were standing right against the glass and barking as loud as they could. (I have to walk around my desk to get to the window, so they ran off when they saw me coming. Saw me coming because they were standing against my window, hands cupped around their eyes so they could see in as they barked.)
thistlechaser: (2 cats 1 cup)
I think I've created a monster, in more ways than one.

My little feeder attracts so many birds! There are four perches, and depending on species and gender, sometimes they will share a perch (but most often they not only want their own perch, they try to drive birds off the other two nearest them, too). Usually there are 20 or more trying to get onto the feeder.

The downside of this is they eat a lot of seed. A lot. A whole bag per week, and a bag costs $25. That's a darned lot of money for wild birds that really could feed themselves. (I have to feed them one of the more expensive foods. Since I live in an apartment, it has to be something they won't toss out and make a mess with, or something they have to shell and make a mess with the leftovers. )

The bird seed attracts squirrels. Nearly from the beginning, they seemed to understand about windows and had no fear of Ellie. I bet you can guess how crazy this makes her. View from our window:


If not for the glass, I could reach out and touch the squirrels from inside, that's how close they are. That's how they sleep, too -- all four limbs hanging down and their heads resting on the surface. (Them in that pose makes Ellie especially crazy.)

I only confirmed the third piece to this ecosystem situation tonight, and I'm unhappy about it. I suspected for the last few days, but now I know for sure: I'm attracting cats. Or rather, the birds and squirrels are. This is bad. The birds (mourning doves and others) eat on the ground. I don't want cats killing them!

Darned neighbors, I can't believe they let their cats roam free around here. Would you believe that Siamese is back? The one I tried to catch a while back? Without a collar again. I think he must be skilled at slipping out of it.

I don't know what to do about the cats. I don't think there's anything I can do. :/

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