The digital camera is up and running! I was able to capture the squirrel eating a cherry! I'm back feeding everything that wants food. Currently I've got a chipmunk that shows up daily, several squirrels, a blue jay (that likes the peanuts), multiple birds, and a few butterflies that sip nectar from my flowers.I began feeding the squirrels again when I realized that the birds hadn't been ignoring the bird feeder because there was so much else out there to eat--but because the squirrels had been attempting to eat from the feeder and the feeding ports had closed (as they were supposed to) from the weight of the squirrel. The birds were going hungry because I didn't realize that the mechanism hadn't opened back up once the squirrel got off the feeder. The only way to prevent the squirrels getting on the bird feeder in the tree, is to feed them from a dish on the porch! So I do!!
Then, the chipmunk comes to eat the squirrel seed and the bluejay comes to eat the peanuts left out for the squirrel, and we are all happy!
More photos will follow, as soon as I figure out how to get outside and take the photo without startling the subject of the photo into running off the deck and jumping into the tree. It's MUCH more difficult that I'd imagined to get any quality photos.
