The war goes on

Here's the latest score:

Guillermo against the squirrels it's Guillermo 10, Squirrels 0.  That is a great success!!  Here is a picture of the bird feeder Guillermo rigged up that foiled the squirrels and those squirrels just CAN'T figure out how to beat it.  They have actually given up.  Which is a good thing.

BUT

But now it's Guillermo 0 and Raccoons 5.  Raccoons have become our biggest problem now.  We have found that pole is now bent slightly and night after night, that bird feeder is either on the ground or all bent to one side.  At first, Guillermo fixed the bird feeder so that it couldn't be taken off unless it was lifted off a wire.  Well, the raccoons figured out how to do that, too.  Guillermo had enough - he put up with all of it for about a week and then said that's it.  So, last night he slept in the room closest to the deck, kept a window open and a flashlight on the sill.

During the night, he watched as the raccoons stand on top of the fence, lean over and with both arms stretched up like a bear they reach the feeder and then shake it wildly.  That makes the seed fall to the ground.  He said then the raccoons go to the ground and eat the seed.  He observed them for about an hour and now Guillermo is plotting his next move against them.  He's still not sure what the next move is, though.

We have some Cooper's Hawks that live in the trees behind us.  And we get to see them a LOT!  Today I was treated to a fantastic view of them.  There is a branch fairly close to our deck where the hawks have perched before.  (It's that bare branch that curves down in the center of the picture.)

When I happened to look out while eating breakfast, I was stunned to see two hawks sitting there making noises.  They were either a male and a female or it was a male and an immature hawk.  Anyway, it was a beautiful scene.  One of these days, I hope to get a picture of the hawk sitting there.

We had dinner with Mom on Tuesday, and afterwards went to her house and put the leaves she had raked into piles into the trash.  Then we dug up a few little plants from her yard and now they are gracing our side yard.  It sure is looking nice.

We also bought an umbrella for the back deck.  Now we need to decide if we want a little table with 4 chairs or if we want a picnic table to put under it.