Corn on a Nail

We decided to feed the squirrels and the birds here in our little back yard. I remember, I think, my Dad or was it my father-in-law, pounding a nail in a tree and putting an ear of corn on there for the squirrels, so we hammered a nail into the top of the fence post and stick on ears of corn we pilfered from the nearby fields during harvest time and that my best friend gave me from her private stash. Those precious ears of corn that are now not being used to feed the world but rather being used to create ethanol to fuel our SUV's.

Anyway, we have three types of squirrels here in our neighborhood: Reds, grays, and blacks. When one gets on the corn, another color will chase him off and while he's chasing him off through the tree tops, yet another color will sneak in and get on the corn. Sometimes they somehow get the whole cob off there and take it away somewhere. We have never seen this happen. Even the international students get a kick out of watching the squirrels. The young man from Nigeria, when asked if they had squirrels in Nigeria, said yes, but not really in town because if any squirrels make it into town, they also make it into the soup pot.

We also hung a bird feeder with a real long metal pole from the deck. Chicadees, nuthatches, woodpeckers, sparrows, no cardinals yet, blue jays, starlings, have all made a visit there. The squirrels thought they might want to get in there too, but they couldn't figure out how to get over to the actual feeder, apparantly not liking the long metal pole for getting over there. It's real skinny. We watched them hang from the deck from their hind legs and stretch way out to try to reach it, but they couldn't. They tried and tried, but couldn't get to it.

One day I happened to be at the window getting some coffee and here came one of the little black squirrels. He scampered up the deck and sat on the top rail. He walked back and forth a number of times and then finally made the jump over to the feeder. The whole thing came crashing down, breaking the feeder and surprising the heck out of the squirrel. All the other squirrels must have been watching because there was a mad dash for all the seed that was now spilled all over the ground, the corn on the nail forgotten for the moment. It seemed like they had discussed it and either chosen this squirrel, or perhaps he volunteered, for the bird seed suicide mission.

We were pissed, so we have been starving out the squirrels, leaving a cleaned off corn cob on the nail just to mess with them, which they continue to visit every day. Now it has snowed, and I kind of feel sorry for the squirrels, so I may put out another cob today.