This is the season of peace and goodwill, but our deck did not reflect that. I flicked open the curtains and saw a dove in a pool of blood. We think it hit the house while we were walking. Other birds kept eating, not mourning for the dove at all. John removed the body, burying it before dog Sadie could get it. I swabbed the deck with a watering can, floating the blood over the edge by pouring water behind it. The wind will eventually remove the few scattered feathers.
A squirrel knocked over a flower pot in his attempt to get to the feeder. He sat there, calmly chewing, as if nothing were amiss. His body language said, “You can’t prove I made this mess, but I’ll help you clean it up.”
Mehrling Muse 
Sad about the dove. These things happen. The squirrel is cute. xo
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Oooooh, my!
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Active morning on the deck!
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😢The poor dove.
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Poor dove. So sweet you gave it a proper burial. That squirrel is too cute 🙂
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That squirrel has clearly been to the same mischief school as the ones around here. Too funny.
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Sad. Poor thing… My family once had a budgie bird, they’d let him out of his cage once in a while so he could be free to fly around. Bad idea! “Billy” flew into a wall, and slid down to the floor… kind of comatose for a bit. But then he got up and seemed OK, if a little subdued. He lived for about a year after that. Then we got a dog.
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I had a parakeet two times. They lived long enough that I wasn’t sorry to see them go. It’s hard to have a meaningful relationship with a bird.
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Sad about the poor dove, and I’ve seen other birds after striking a window and just out cold or dead, but no blood – it must have really hit it hard. Awful to come home to see that … I was in the Park last week and rounding the corner as I usually do and there was a dove, feet in the air and dead as a door nail – frost had settled on its body but it was intact so no hawk or turkey vulture went after it (before or after respectively). The squirrel sure is a cutie but mischievous … can’t have anything nice at your house around a squirrel as they eat it and will destroy anything in their way. I took treats to the Park last Sunday – bird bells for the birds and when I returned a few days later, they were gone, stripped clean … this year I hung them in the trees on a small branch, not enough to support a squirrel’s weight; no telling what happened after I left.
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You are kind to feed birds in the park. I’m selfish. I feed them so I can see them.
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No selfish at all because I feed them on my porch; I fed the birds for years … had a little set-up for the birds and squirrels in the backyard beside the birdseed. A lattice, wrought-iron table and had two pizza pans with holes strapped to the table with long pipe cleaners … lower level and smaller pan was squirrel’s peanuts; the larger pizza pan was bread for the birds. We had a day-old store nearby and could get bread cheap and my mom would crumb them up a cup to take out every morning. And had the birdfeeders and an occasional Birdola block. In the Summer, no table and no bread but had four birdbaths, different sizes. Had to stop all of it when neighbor moved in with a pit bull left outside 24/7/365 – we got rats (Marge/my mom and I). We paid for a pest control service for both of us and I could not put out birdseed, bread, peanuts or birdbaths – broke my heart. I do put peanuts on the front porch where the jays, cardinals, sparrows (yes the sparrows take them!!) and three kinds of squirrels come. I watch from the car in the driveway or from inside the garage – they are wary when I am outside, or watch from the front window. And you know about my furry and feathered friends at the Park, which I am going to try to write about today or tomorrow. I love watching them enjoy their treats. I have a very cute picture of Parker eating a Christmas sugar cookie shaped like a Christmas tree. I can’t put the bird/squirrel treats in the backyard – Jeff said he saw a raccoon and we still have rats (according to Jeff). I’ve never enjoyed the garden since the first rat appearance in 2008.
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That’s a shame about the rats. Was it the birdseed that attracted them? I wonder if that is an urban problem.
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Yes, I hated that it happened and gave away all my birdfeeders and food to our former neighbor’s son after their mother passed away and they came to clear out the house/garage. He moved up north and had a small bird sanctuary. I was upset, loss of birds who would line up on the fence, long after I stopped feeding them. The pest control service said it was because of the dog – he fed it table scraps on top of it. Marge could see it from her house. He was Mexican and used to grill.stuff outside and toss it to the dog and kept it in a caged-in area. (And it barked all night long in the Winter as it never went into the house.) I loved feedingthe birds and squirrels, long before my forays to the Park and am envious of people who get the birds flocking to their feeders. The neighbor who passed away had a kitchen that looked outside and they (her and her late husband) delighted in watching the birds go to the feeder. He passed away in 2008 and she developed dementia after his demise.
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Watching birds is lots of fun. You have expanded our horizons by sharing photos of squirrels and birds in the park.
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I had so much fun last week feeding them. I suspect that the squirrels pilfered some of the bird seed bells though – it was gone too quickly. I think I mentioned a guy at the Park said I reminded him of Snow White tending to the animals – I may mention that in this blog post. I started it last night, but have to add the photos. I cannot stress how good the walking regimen was for me – walking, starting the blog and a renewed interest in photography.
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So sad about the Dove. I love to listen to them. The Squirrel looks like the leader of a raiding party, he is a cutie though.
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I was glad we removed the dove’s body quickly. His relatives and friends fed happily all afternoon just inches from the scene of death.
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Stay off the deck for a while! haha!
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