Cleansing Post

I need a little cleansing post. Today has been a hard day. It has been filled with unpleasant surprises about illnesses and I'm not even going to discuss the horror story that is my office right now. Things are, pretty up in the air. So instead I'm going to focus on my happy thing for the day.

My feeder has been discovered. Sadly it's been discovered by a squinty (thirteen striped ground squirrel for everyone not in Iowa). He arrives at the feeder, stuffs his cheeks with tons of food, and runs back to his den. And while I'm frustrated that he can empty my feeder in a day, I think he's absolutely adorable when his cheeks are stuffed with seed. Here he is peering over the side of the feeder. Not sure what he's looking at. [Note: I have no idea why these little creatures are called squinties in Iowa. It's the name I grew up with and just seems to be the standard for the state. I'll see if I can find that out]

Here is a black-capped chickadee that has been coming for a couple weeks. Today he fought over the feeder with this white-breasted nuthatch. I've never seen more than one bird on this feeder but I switched food today. It was a nice surprise in a day filled with bad ones.

And here is a little video of my uninvited guest. Enjoy the chubby cheeks. I wonder how much seed he can pack in there. Plus he appears to think that my feeder is a swing. He's a cute little fellow I just wish he ate a little slower.

Thanks for allowing me to share about the happy part of my day.