little things

I'm guessing the dead critter is a vole as the smell has already started to decrease and this morning I found another dead one laying on the floor in front of the refrigerator. Emma the cat doesn't bother birds but she is hell on those poor little voles and anoles. She must have brought them both in but how the one got in the cabinet and behind that board, obviously mortally wounded, is a mystery.

And speaking of poor little dead things, apparently the last time anyone went in the shop before I left on vacation, a wren got trapped in there because when I went over there the other day I found it's poor little skeleton amid a pile of feathers at the bottom of one of the roll up doors. They can get in and out of our garage when it's closed up but I guess the roll up doors at the shop fit much tighter. I did retrieve it's little skull and added it to my collection.

from left: seabird in Scotland, seabird in Galveston, blue jay, cardinal, mockingbird, wren, finch, warbler

When I picked it up I noticed an unattached dark ring nestled in the space between it's eye holes. I've never seen this in any other bird skull I have collected.

you can see it better from underneath

And speaking of birds, I don't know if I mentioned that I took down both bird feeders, the one hanging from the shepherd's crook and the teacup, because the squirrels just dominated them keeping the birds away. When I would wait a couple of weeks and put the teacup back out, the squirrels would find it before the birds so in it would come again. Yesterday, a female cardinal was sitting in the shrub outside the window where the teacup used to hang giving me the stink eye so I set it back out. This young male made several attempts to land on the teacup but he didn't quite have the courage and would bail at the last second seeing me sitting so close through the window.

I decided to move the teacup and put up a shelf bracket under the eave on the other side of the door to the little backyard. I can see it through the glass from where I sit but I won't be able to take pictures because from this angle, it's all glare in the camera. It didn't take the young male long to take advantage of it's new location but so far he's the only one I've seen on it. And the best part is, I don't think the squirrels will be able to get to it...no branches close enough to launch from (I hope) and I don't think they can access it from the roof. It's hard to foil a squirrel though so we'll just have to wait and see but so far, so good.