Coons and baby woodpeckers

Christina, bear tastes like bear. It's red, dark, and greasy. It's an acquired taste, few people like it the first time they try it. If they are eating berries and acorns they taste better than when they are living of dead fish carcasses‘. Go figgur. The fat makes good boot grease and pie crusts.

I loved your baby coon story! We had a bird feeder outside our bedroom window so we could wake up in the morning and watch the birds feeding. It was great until the coons discovered it. The coons we had were also fun to watch but they would show up about three ‘o-clock in the morning. My dog that was bred for hunting thought that it was a perfect opportunity for a hunt. I wasn’t that enthusiastic. But, I would turn on the outside light and watch the coons eating the bird food. They would look at the dog though the sliding glass door. Their eyes were riveted on the dog and their hands would feel for the bird food, they would scoop up a handful and eat it without moving or even blinking their eyes.

Soon there was a competing tribe of coons moved in, and there would be coon arguments for the rest of the night. I would watch them fight, they back up to each other and push the other coon with their butts. When the other coon got off balance the aggressive coon would whirl around and bite the crap out of the out-of-balance coon. These fights would go on for hours. When we painted the house we took the bird feeder down. It became quite peaceful again. So we hesitate to put it back up.

The thing that I will miss about having no bird feeder is the heart warming experience of watching the birds pair up, take turns coming for food, while their mates watch the nest. Then one day they show up at the bird feeder with their baby’s, with the little rubber corners in their mouths and their bright enthusiastic manner.

My favorite was a Acorn Woodpecker. With the black and white body, and the bright red head, and the slightly yellowish throat. When he showed up the other birds would scatter and stay away until he left. I never saw him harm any other birds but they treated like he was “The Fonze”. He would lay his head sideways and scoop up seeds that way. He never pecked at them. I know you probably though that acorn woodpeckers don’t eat seeds, but they do something with them, because he sure hauled a lot off.

One day a mate for him showed up, and they ruled the bird feeder together for a while, then she pretty much disappeared. One mid-summer day I woke up about five thirty in the morning to the most gosh-awful woodpecker racket that you ever heard. They are noisy boisterous birds anyway, but this was remarkably noisy. I looked out the window and on the limb of the tree in front of the feeder was daddy woodpecker, momma woodpecker and three cute fledglings and they were all contemplating the bird feeder. I imagined in my mind the parents were saying to the babies; “And this is where you come to eat!”