RAIDERS OF THE LOST SEED

Hubby decided yesterday was the day to try and clean up our open-air garage -- a thankless task, the results of which never last for long, due to that bit about it being "open-air".  On the plus side, if you have people in the family with hoarding tendencies, you can't just toss a bunch of junk in there then slam the doors shut and forget about it. 

When he moved the cars out of the way, he found our usual little "gift" - piles of birdseed detritus beneath each one.

The first time we noticed it, we couldn't figure out how it got there. Could the wind have blown it in? Then why wasn't it elsewhere in the garage? Why just these two little piles? Finally we caught on. The birds and the tree squirrels are messy eaters, and leave piles of seed beneath each of our feeders. Then the rock squirrels - those funky little fellows who are more gray than brown, with very dark heads and faces -- come along to gather it all up, and ferry it to their dining rooms under our cars. Apparently they prefer a bit of privacy when they dine. We like to watch them in action through our front door while we eat our own dinner.

A couple of nights ago we were watching something on TV when I caught some movement out of the corner of my eye. It was the same color as our squirrels, with the same fluffy tail, but waaaay too big. "John, quick! Come look!" Turns out our little foxes like birdseed too! We figured that one was probably the mother of the litter our neighbors above us found at their house. I would have given anything to snap a photo of her, but knew that the minute she heard our door creak open, she'd be off like greased lightening.

Instead, we just stood there watching as she finished up all the seed in the garage, then moved outside to clean up everything under the feeder next to it. Way better than watching TV, dontcha think?