A few days ago, Pinecone and I reached what I thought was a reasonable compromise. Pinecone could stop stealing the woodpeckers’ suet, and in return, I would provide a feeder filled especially for the squirrel; with corn, peanuts, sunflower seeds, and all the things I imagined a squirrel might appreciate. It seemed like a perfectly sensible solution.
Apparently, nobody Behind the Puddle received the memo.
This afternoon, while the rain continued to fall, I looked toward Pinecone’s new feeder and found one of our collared-doves comfortably sitting in the middle of it. Not visiting. Not investigating. She was eating, carefully working her way through a mixture that is mostly corn and peanuts, apparently finding enough sunflower seeds or other interesting little pieces to make the trip worthwhile.
And really, I should have expected this. The entire reason Pinecone has a feeder of their own is because Pinecone refused to recognize that the suet feeder belonged to the woodpeckers. I kept finding the rectangular suet block on the ground with very obvious squirrel-sized bites missing from it, while gently explaining that we needed to share with our friends.
So I bought Pinecone a feeder.
And a dove moved in.
I watched her stand there in the rain, completely unbothered by the fact that this particular dining establishment had not been created with her in mind. A smaller bird continued visiting the regular feeder nearby, and everyone simply went about eating what they wanted from wherever they could comfortably find it. There was no concern for the categories I had so carefully assigned.
Maybe that is another lesson I am learning Behind the Puddle. I can put out bird food and squirrel food, woodpecker suet and cracked corn for the geese, but the neighbors who actually live here have their own ideas about how everything should be shared. They don’t seem particularly interested in the labels.
And perhaps that is exactly how it should be.
The feeders were never really meant to belong to anyone anyway. They are simply another small way of saying, there is enough here for you, too. Today, apparently, that included a collared-dove sitting in Pinecone’s squirrel feeder, eating sunflower seeds while the rain fell around her.
Pinecone may have started this whole thing.
But I have a feeling Pinecone is going to have to learn to share with our friends, too.
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