Sunday, June 21, 2009

Where have all the sunflowers gone?


Every morning lately we are greeted with the high pitched squeaking noise of a swarm of siskin finches waiting for the sunflower heart feeders to be topped up. They wait noisily in the nearby trees until I replenish the feeders and then they attach themselves for dear life to the roundabout nearly biting my hand off in the process. The rather scraggy speckled youngsters make the highest pitched noise. We've had to buy another feeder as our regular popular visitor is Cyril the squirrel who scares the birds away by his sheer size and acrobatic skills.

We have a stream of squirrels visit during the day but they all go by the name of Cyril. In winter the coat is thick and red and it has a very bushy tail and long ear tufts. Now in Summer their coat is turning lighter in colour ready for the warmer weather and the ear tufts are smaller and pale. We can identify the different squirrels by their ear tufts as some have got a few whispy hairs remaining on their ears. The squirrels are very impatient and will try the nut feeders as well as the bird table for anything else to eat until the catering service is open for business.
Fascinating red squirrel facts.

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