Did this Bird Dress up for Trick or Treat?

Lots of different birds come and go at the feeders in my sister’s backyard.  But lately we have had a special little one visiting, one with a quaint, special chirp as it sits in the surrounding trees.

We are not sure where the Yellow Budgie/Parakeet came from…and it was not alone.  A green Parakeet, or perhaps Cockatiel, was seen with it the first day it showed up about a month ago, but we only saw it for two or three days, and from a distance.  I have been waiting for the moment to capture this little one on camera…it does not show its face very often, although we hear its distinct chirp on most days.  It seems to hang with the many Finches, and flies between three or four backyards in the neighborhood.

Then there is the ongoing drama of Skruffy and Bubba versus the Squirrels.  When we last left this drama, Skruffy had touched the Squirrel we have named Jackie.  Jackie is the proud mother of three young squirrels, born earlier this year, and now are getting close to their mothers size.  In relation to humans, we would say they are in their “teens”.  We “think” this is their daddy in the tree to the left, and below.

As teenagers do, these three little squirrels have have been playing games with Skruffy and Bubba.  While daddy eats, they play…chasing each other…teasing the dogs.

The drill goes like this….and I will say right up front that getting a “sharp” picture of these guys running around is not easy to do with my camera.   One of the young squirrels will come down the right side of the tree, while Skruffy is sitting on the left side of the tree.

They will wander down onto the ground…she takes off…they cut back to the tree running around the other side and up the trunk…

...with Skruffy in wild pursuit.  I think they learned this from their mother Jackie…but they have two good eyes, and much more speed than Jackie, and poor little Skruffy is …

…left empty handed…err….empty pawed.  Until a couple of days ago when Bubba got in on the action too. Don’t have pictures of this, but Arny and I both saw it.  Bubba was sneaking up on the squirrel who was down on the ground while Skruffy's view was blocked by the tree on the other side.  It kept an eye on Bubba, who was slowly crawling up on it when out of the blue, Skruffy attacked around the tree.  That little squirrel, who had been up and down numerous times playing with Skruffy for the past half hour got slapped on its butt by her paw before it scrambled up the tree, up the limb, out a limb to another tree and over to the safety of the other side of the fence.  But all is fine, and it was back the next day with the other two teenage squirrels to “play again another day.”

If you look closely at the base of the tree (above) you can see the shells and even some nuts which have fallen out of the squirrel house which up in the tree.  Bubba has a bad habit…he LOVES to sniff and lick up the seeds and shells.  Arny told me that very next day after Skruffy touched the young squirrel, Bubba was over at the base of the tree, nose down to the ground, sniffing and licking.  One of the young squirrels, perhaps even he one Skruffy embarrassed the day before, came down the tree trunk, took its front leg and hit Bubba right on the head.  Bubba looks up real quick, the squirrel is long gone up into the tree, and Arny said that he had not laughed so hard in a long long time.  Bubba never did know what hit him.  Dogs 2, Squirrels 1.   Oh, if I had only been there to get a picture of that one!!!!!

Note:  We have seen Jackie a few times since Skruffy hit her butt a few weeks ago, but she visits the "feeder" less often, and generally in the early morning when the dogs are not out.  Perhaps she is weaning herself away from her young ones...or perhaps she is afraid of the dogs.  Of all the squirrels, she was the one which was less afraid of Arny and Sandy before the dogs arrived...we hope after we leave she will again strike up that relationship.  As for Skruffy, she will continue the chase, and we doubt she will ever get any closer than she has already gotten.  Bubba, well...he might be a little embarrassed about all the teasing we have given him for letting a squirrel hit him upside the head.  Today he ran away...first time in well over a year that he had taken off.  Luckily, Arny's friend Steve was headed down the street and saw him, and when he called Bubba over to his truck, Bubba ran over and hopped in.  Steve had Bubba back home before anyone knew he was gone.  Bubba, who has a history of doing this type of thing, will be more closely watched, and we all have our fingers (and paws) crossed hoping it is the last of his adventures.