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| In a recent article in Time magazine, there was a picture of the Dalai Lama, lifting a scoop of seed up to a small cylindrical bird feeder in his garden. The feeder was wider around than it was tall. I don't know what kind of birds visit the Dalai Lama's bird feeder in Dharamsala, but he probably doesn't get very many chickadees.
This year, something in me snapped in October. I was sure I was never going to live to see Spring again. That all the effort that I had put into my garden this summer would have to be for other people to enjoy. I seemed to feel the dark of winter sucking the life force out of me in a particularly personal way, like some astronomically inspired vampire had gripped me by the throat. So, this year, as an emergency measure, I started feeding the birds early as a way to ease myself into the gloom of winter. This naturally led to feeding the squirrels early too. It occurred to me that the Dalai Lama's feeder did not look at all prepared for an onslaught of squirrels. Maybe they aren't a problem in India. I've heard of many schemes for foiling squirrels, everything from coffee cans on a wire to try to knock the squirrels off the line that supports the bird feeder, to plastic saucers, super sonic squealers, and motion detectors. My feeders do not have any squirrel baffles. I've been trying to make sure there is enough to go around. I now have a special rectangular cage feeder that looks like a suet feeder only bigger. I put a large cake of peanuts and corn into this every so often just for the squirrels. It seems to be very popular with the nuthatches. I put out a suet feeder for the nuthatches, and got downy woodpeckers. The woodpeckers are much smaller than I thought they would be. They have speckled backs and white tummies. They bob up and down the tree trunks and visit the suet cage when the squirrels aren't sitting on top of it. Last week, the Boston Globe listed that there were 3 Carolina wrens reported in the state of Massachusetts. I haven't reported mine. I have at least two, and as far as I'm concerned they can hide out in my yard without fear of being stalked by the bird paparazzi. I had never seen a Carolina wren before this year. They are small and brown and look like a chipmunk when they dart in and out of the crevices in the stone wall behind our house. The Carolina wrens look furry rather than feathery. I was so excited about seeing a new kind of bird that I put up a new feeder in their honor. This one has two extra baskets for suet that sit on the sides like saddle bags. The new feeder holds seven pounds of seeds and about an equal weight of squirrels. But now I also have cardinals that shyly come to the new feeder in the early morning and in the late afternoons. In New England in winter a Cardinal is shockingly red. Like having a parrot, or those Indian birds I imagine flitting through the Dalai Lama's garden. I was given another feeder for Christmas, and I can hardly wait to see who shows up when I put that one out. I can bet that there will be determined squirrels plotting from their leafy nests even more ingenious and acrobatic raids upon the new feeder as soon as I put it out there. But I also think that if the Ocean of Wisdom, Holder of the White Lotus and Protector of the Land of Snows does have exotic Indian squirrels, he probably feeds them too. And when I see those squirrels swinging upside down by their toes, I'll try to remind myself that we all have our own ways of surviving the winter.
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