Although our cats don’t go outside, there is plenty of fauna traipsing through the yard. In addition to several neighborhood cats, there are many birds, squirrels, several skunks (with very interesting markings, but are difficult to photograph because they only come out at night) and a few woodchucks. With the exception of the cats, they all love bird food.

We have dubbed the woodchucks “The Wiggles” and have no idea of gender or age. The internet tells me they live alone, but I’ve seen as many as three together, rummaging along the fence and munching on weeds. There have been some issues in past years where they’ve eaten vegetables from garden – particularly young corn – but we seemed to have reached an understanding this year.

Although woodchucks can climb (they are a type of ground squirrel) they are nowhere near as agile as the squirrels. When the squirrels don’t like what feed has fallen the the ground they climb the pole and eat right out of the feeder. At least one of them has figured out how to climb inside the feeder.

This would bother many people. But the main reason we keep a bird feeder is to entertain our cats. And in that capacity, is has been successful.