My Back Yard

Squirrelogs should be for squirrels, right?

Iggy and I run a Squirrel Cafe, which is meant to feature a corn cob jammed onto a nail for squirrels’ eating pleasure. But dried corn cobs have been in short supply since the ethanol boom started. Iggy hasn’t found them at Agway in months. So, on his last visit to the store, Iggy bought a package of Squirrelogs made of sweet corn flour molded into a corn cob shape. My fluffy-tailed friends don’t like the Squirrelogs as much as the real thing. But they seem to enjoy gnawing on the logs occasionally.

The squirrels had the Squirrelogs all to themselves. Until yesterday, when I noticed some sparrows pecking at the rain-moistened corn product. They came back again today. Next, I noticed a blue jay working on the Squirrelog.

Birds had ignored the traditional corn cobs in the cafe, but now they’ve taken with gusto to the ersatz replacement. The poor squirrels are sharing yet another food source with the birds. In my backyard, there’s no food that’s exclusive to squirrels. The birds get in on all the action. Plus, they have three feeders that hang off a wall of our house where the squirrels can’t reach.

Here’s a guest post by Iggy, my husband.

I arrived home late one night last week from helping a friend with something. It was dark and I noticed as I entered the back of the yard the pungent smell of a skunk. We refer to skunks as “Skwinkee.” I carefully walked to the back door in the dark, very slowly, as didn’t want to surprise Skwinkee if they were around. As got closer, I could hear what sounded like one of our squirrels chewing on a peanut. But I know squirrels aren’t out that late. Still the motion detector light at back door had not triggered. I walked VERY slowly. Finally the light came on and I saw what at first I thought was one of the young racoons standing in the driveway. Then I realized it was a cute skunk which badly needed a haircut as its long hair made it look bigger. It did not move and kept chewing. I ascended the back stairs and the skunk stayed put. As I opened the door, the skunk ran off towards the street. Relieved I had made it, I grabbed a peanut from inside and threw it towards the driveway & closed the door.

Then I realized that was probably the last peanut the skunk would get from us as we can no longer put peanuts out at night for the squirrels & birds to race for the next morning. Although skunks are cute it is too risky to attract them.