Squirrels, birds & lunch

Ah, squirrels. Back in the city we were infested with squirrels and pigeons, and city squirrels are about the nastiest, scruffiest looking critters you can imagine. Out here in the country they are at least cute, even if they do go through a lot of bird seed. One tactic we've been trying is to set up a squirrel feeding area away from the bird feeders, which works, sort of. They finish that off and then go for the bird's stuff...

I wrote this a few years ago, in a different back yard, after a particuarly satisfying (or gross, depending on your viewpoint) incident involving a squirrel and a red tailed hawk...

There's a squirrel sitting on the fence
going Naw! Naw! Naw! at the birds.
The birds flap their wings
and do silly things
but the squirrel isn't disturbed.

He's munching their corn
and he's eating their millet,
he's gulping their thistle
and he's nibbling their suet,
he's wolfing down bird seed
one type at a time,
as the birds all watch
and go out of their minds.

So squirrel just sits
on the fence post and lunches,
looking quite debonair
as he rests on his haunches;
but a high flying hawk sees
the squirrel out there,
away from his tree,
not safe in his lair.

And if bird food is squirrel food,
it's not so absurd,
that squirrels can be bird food,
for just the right bird.