birds & squirrels

after spending about ten hours watching The Life of Birds over the course of several days, i've come to the conclusion that some birds are just mean. for example, one pair of duck-type birds evidently get tired of feeding their young and "scold" their fluffy little off-spring. they scold the one that begs for food the most: the scolding, which is really harsh pecking about the head, continues until the chick slumps over dead in the water. the parents do this one-by-one until they are left with just a couple babies. such a strange thing. i have to question why they have so many babies in the first place.

we have a little red squirrel that has taken up residency in our garage this winter. she's quite a destructive little character but i won't let scott chase her off and seal up the gap under the door because, according to the experts, she will not survive the winter without her home...our garage. she will need to be evicted this spring: i don't know how this will work as she will probably have babies in there at some point.