What's rocking my backyard today

So we just took part in the White Rock East Garden Tour this past weekend. And after months of serious hard work, the yard is in excellent shape. The birdhouse treehouse has been totally renovated with a lovely new white shiplap interior, complete with two skylights, mid-century modern decor and a fabulous new espresso machine.

The greenhouse has been converted from winter plant storage into air-conditioned summer lounging space with a queen bed, writing desk and a half bath.

A great place for an afternoon nap.

The pond is now resplendent with 6-foot palms, three 6-inch koi and a number of small but riotous comet goldfish.

And the metal artist that was featured in our yard for the tour (Robin Funk from MetalFunk) has  been relieved of a variety of colorful new art pieces which we will, from this point forward, permanently enjoy.

Freon Cylinder Tulips

But the things that are rocking my world these days are of the living variety.  We have a Ladderback Woodpecker nest in one of our front yard trees.

Loud but lovely.

And we have a number of regular visits from Carolina Chickadees, a Tufted Titmouse and a mated pair of tiny Brown Wrens.

Carolina Chickadee are only about 4 inches long. 

The Tufted Titmouse is super cute.

The Brown Wrens like to nest in the most inconvenient places like hanging baskets and bbq grills.

And then, there are the squirrels.

I recently received a squirrel feeder at my own somewhat misguided request. But I've since learned that these vociferous little rodents simply aren't satisfied with a single corncob a day. They broke into the Elfa storage unit outside our backdoor where I misguidedly stored the bag of squirrel food. As you can imagine, there were corn kernels and plastic bag pieces strewn everywhere. What's more, they've quickly adapted to gain access to the bird feeder hanging in front of the birdhouse treehouse window.

The bird feeder from inside the tree house.

Todd suggested hanging the bird feeder there as a way to keep the birds from flying into the window. We had a couple of bird strikes last year when the sun's position makes the window invisible and the birds think they can actually fly inside the opening. Sadly, a beautiful Cedar Waxwing was killed instantly, but a dove did survive after being unconscious for a couple hours. I had a full-on bird-print on the outside of the window for months.

The birds have been slow to adopt the feeder even though it's full of sunflower chips, with the exception of a pair of dove who are both so big they rock the feeder whenever they're on it. Fortunately, a pair of cardinals come along and eat whatever they spill on the ground.

However, one particularly ambitious male squirrel has been eying the bird feeder for several weeks. Each day, he's walked around the ledge, jumped up on the perch, launched himself up into the frame of octagonal window and leaned as far out as he could to try to reach the bird feeder. But he simply couldn't reach it. So he'd then perform what's turned into a hilarious daily ritual in which he'd jump back down on the perch, stand on his hind legs and reach both arms up toward the feeder in a vain attempt to determine if he'd yet grown the three feet needed for him to reach it.

Then the other day I caught him actually accomplishing his task. In what I can only describe as a death defying reach from the window frame to the bird feeder, he committed himself to the job and dove toward the feeder which, I'd like to point out, hangs a good 15 feet above the ground.

Fortunately, he caught the feeder while his feet were still on the window frame and managed to pull it back toward the window and feast on the sunflower seeds.  Not bad, especially since he's working without a net.

The lesson I learned today. With great risk, comes great rewards. Time to find my next leap.