There are thieves in my garden. They have stripped the fruit from the crab apple trees, gulped down the winter-berries, picked the snails from the pond, chewed open the walnuts and scattered their shells, chewed on what's left of the osier dogwoods and munched on the fallen apples, wormy and soft now. I can live with all of this, but they are now stealing from the birds. They are attacking the feeders. First it was squirrels hurling themselves from the lowest boughs of the Norway Spruce trees, landing squarely on the platform feeder which stands four feet down and four feet out. We caught them swaying innocently from the platform screening, vacuuming peanuts and cranberries. Yesterday I cut the boughs and made wreaths for my staircase with raffia and ribbon. The leap is too long for them now, but I'm not optimistic that the battle is over.
Last night the raccoons came and strong-armed the pipe holding the suet feeder, swiveling it downward until the feeder slipped off. They dragged it off somewhere secret to pry it open and eat the peanut butter cakes. So today we'll hunt for the feeder in the buffer at the end of the yard and we'll kick the leaf piles hoping to discover their hiding place. Then we'll head to the home improvement store to purchase supplies to make a stove pipe raccoon baffle.
I have three things on the Christmas list I gave to Hubby. A ring, garden shoes, and a motion sensitive night camera to catch thieves in the act. Not in that order. The camera has been on the list for three years now. I will get the ring.. it's not his fault.. In January I'll buy the camera myself.
