I am sure I will regret it, but I bought a bird feeder and put it up--I thought it would amuse Stripey; but after 10 minutes she got bored with it, leaving us to watch the birds instead. They are cute, but there are a lot of them, rather like the bees. They can also empty out the feeder in a single day..except when the local, very small Cooper's Hawk shows up, and then they scatter. The Cooper's Hawk actually walked around on the ground like a surly pigeon after the small birds flew off, and he walked into the bushes and stuck his head in various holes, which seems like strange and risky behavior for a hawk that a dog or even a cat could take on. I guess he was hungry. The local possums and skunks are full of Christmas leftovers from the compost pile, so maybe they aren't out foraging as much. The squirrels in front can barely be bothered to get out of bed for nuts now.
