HAPPY HUMP DAY
I'm an idiot. No, really. I appreciate you disagreeing (you did disagree, right?) but I have proof.
I love birds. I have a half dozen feeders around my back yard filled with various kinds of seed, and two bird baths - one heated to ensure they have drinking water in the winter. I especially like the feeder that hangs from a hook clamped to the deck railing because it brings my little feathered friends close to the kitchen window. It's the type with a plastic seed container inside a metal cage. The cage is on a spring that causes it to drop when anything heavier than a bird (i.e. a squirrel) lands on a perch, so that it covers the feeding ports and keeps the seed for birds only.
A couple of months ago I did a routine cleaning of all my feeders, which involved taking them apart to wash the insides. Since then I noticed the deck feeder wasn't being visited as usual. Birds would land on the perches but not stay to eat. This often means there's a predator in the area and I did spot a hawk a few times. But even when there were birds at all the other feeders, this one was ignored. Once or twice a week I would dump the seed onto the paving stones under the feeder and re-fill it with fresh, just in case the seed was the problem. The seed I poured onto the stones was quickly scarfed up by both birds and squirrels but the feeder remained abandoned. I was confused and a bit disappointed.
This morning, I went to dump the untouched seed from that feeder and put in new, and something strange caught my eye. When I took it off the hook, the cage moved in my hand and covered the feeding ports, as expected, but when I hung it on the hook and let go, the cage was still covering the ports. At first I thought the spring was broken but the cage was moving up and down just fine. I took the feeder down again and studied it more closely. None of the feeding ports matched up to the openings in the cage or to the perches. The last time I'd taken the feeder apart, I'd put the cage on sideways (rotated 90 degrees). The birds weren't eating the seed because they couldn't get to it.
It took me MONTHS to figure this out.
I'm an idiot!
The feeder is now fixed and we'll see how long it takes for some brave soul to check it out and realize the chow line is open again. Hopefully, they'll be quicker than I was.
For Hump Day...a friend sent me this. I'm not sure which dog shaming site it came from, but I love it... especially the part about not living near a beach.
Something a little different for your "aw" this week.
Did you say it? I did.
That's all for today. I hope my little bout of idiocy gave you a laugh.
For my Jewish friends, I wish you a joyous and blessed Passover.
For my Christian friends, I wish you a joyous and blessed Easter.
See you next week.
Thought for this week:
