The following question was presented:
One of the last things that Mr O did whilst he was here was to help me put up a new bird feeder (with the snappy title of “The Snack Shack”). What was the first animal to feed on the bird food in the snack shack?
Results:
Squirrel was the clear winner with 80% of the votes selected from the following:
- Chestnut-backed Chickadee (0%)
- House Finch (0%)
- Ivory-billed Woodpecker (0%)
- Northern Flicker (0%)
- Plain Titmouse (20%)
- Red-breasted Nuthatch (0%)
- Scrub Jay (0%)
- Stellar's Jay (0%)
- Squirrel (80%)
Graphic of Results:
Analysis:
All yee of little faith! You know, I nearly didn't put “animal” in the question and have squirrel as an option as I thought too many people may read into that. If you did, sorry, it was indeed a bird. Unfortunately not a plain titmouse, it was in fact a scrub jay, closely followed by a Stellar's jay.
Mr O witnessed the anti squirrel device in action and I'll post the footage of that video sometime. That said, the squirrel's have managed to bypass the anti squirrel device and are now happily chowing down on my nuts. All the other birds listed have been seen on the feeder with the exception of the northern flicker that has been pictured in our garden and was on the fence by the feeder, but not actually on it. And, of course, the ivory-billed woodpecker hasn't been seen on the feeder either on account of the fact that it's believed to be extinct.
Interestingly enough, Mr O's Bald Knob prevented us from potentially seeing an ivory-billed woodpecker. There have been some potential sightings of this bird in relatively recent years (2000+) one of which was near Brinkley, Arkansas. Brinkley is on the I40, a road we travelled on a lot, however, we didn't go on this stretch as we went up north to pass through Bald Knob. Apparently the whole town has woodpecker statues all over it and the local inn has been renamed to excite and accommodate all the bird watchers that the town was hoping would come once the sighting was confirmed. Sadly it hasn't been confirmed and instead of an ivory billed woodpecker, we got a photo of house with a sofa on the front of it.
Talking of photos, there was a request to get a picture of Mr O with the bird feeder. As we strive to meet the requests of both readers of this site, see below for said pictures that you can double click to enlarge.
