On Becoming an Influencer

 

I get da peanuts

I run on down

It started with peanuts. When you reach a certain age, you look for entertainment anywhere you can find it. In my case, I'm a pretty cheap date. Feeding peanuts to the Blue Jays works for me.

However, the bossman is a fan of the dastardly clever little chipmunks. He likes to feed THEM peanuts.

Chonk-munk

This creates a situation of great conflict, since they are both aggressive and ravenous. The 'munks gather continuously, stuffing cheeks full of anything that will fit (and many things that won't). 

I get the peanuts

And I scarf em on down

The jays have to carry the nuts away one-by-one and crack them out of the shells to enjoy them.

Thus the chipmunks have had about a four-to-one advantage over the birds.

Since nuts are pretty expensive to toss on the ground for the wildlife, I have pondered and experimented in ways to slant the game in the blue folks' favor.

I don't get the peanuts but this cracked corn isn't
too bad

This morning I became an influencer, if only in who gets the peanuts and who doesn't.

Because I was defrosting the big freezer I was later than usual in sneaking outside to my birding chair to parcel out my share of the nuts. The jays had evidently given up on me and by the time they came back to the yard the 'munks had eaten ALL the nuts.

What are peanuts?
Are they anything like lettuce?

I had two leftovers in my pocket and when one of my blue-feathered buddies landed by the place I put nuts, I made sure he was watching me and tossed one out by my feet. He tipped his head back and forth a couple times as if debating whether I wanted to eat him, then darted down and nabbed it.

Within minutes the local jays were gathered around watching me. Whenever I tossed a nut out of my pocket they were all over it in no time flat. The chipmunks only got one out of a whole pocketful

So now I am a backyard influencer. I can hardly wait until tomorrow when it is time to meet the morning flight.

Fie on peanuts
Imma get you all!
(This is not our cat, but if you know whose cat it is,
tell them they might want to keep him home...)