Birdie Buffet update: It’s a gorgeous blue sky day, warming up for summer but comfortable, and the squirrels and birds are very hungry! Including a new visitor who initially had me alarmed, because with my poor eyesight, I thought it was a HAWK sitting high in one of my fir trees, surveying the territory and thinking about LUNCH.

I need glasses. It wasn’t a Hawk, but it was a pretty large bird: one I’ve never seen here before. I pulled out my handy bird guide and found out it’s a Band-tailed Pigeon. Totally vegetarian and it was highly interested in the sunflower hearts that Mr Towhee, the Juncos and Chickadees are feasting on, right by the big rhododendron bush by the patio.

The new bird was pretty placid and didn’t care much about me rushing outside in my bathrobe trying to fend off the “Hawk” that was staring down at my small bird pals.

In fact, it just moved from the Fir to the big Cedar tree and waited for me to stop waving my arms in the air and get out of the way. Then, it tried again to land by the patio and grab some seeds. It really liked the seeds and seemed determined to eat every single one of them. Pecked away in a very meticulous pattern, missing nothing!

The squirrels, especially the baby squirrels were nonplussed by this new character and tried to muscle it away from the sunflower hearts, but the big Pigeon was going nowhere. It just kept looking for more seeds. It wiggled its wings a bit but otherwise totally ignored the squirrels.

You’d think it had dealt with squirrels all its life and you would probably be right.

I just stayed in my kitchen, watching through the window and wondering what kind of bird it was. It reminded me a bit of a female Ring-tailed Pheasant that blew into the backyard during a winter snowstorm and decided to stay for a week. She liked sunflower hearts, too.

Haven’t seen Sammy yet today but Lefty had walnuts for an early breakfast and Bobby came by later for his. Both of them continue to look better and move around better.

Most of you probably don’t remember Pudge, one of my long time squirrel pals. She’s been missing for quite awhile and I didn’t expect to see her again. At first, I doubted that it was the same squirrel, the girth was a little bit less and she wasn’t as friendly to me. But its been a few days now and I think it’s my Pudge. She really prefers shelled nuts, eats non stop and hops inside the far planter to hide and eat, Pudge style. But the real determination is that Pudge had a peculiar orthodontia situation and SPEWED loads of nut crumbs everywhere she ate. Well, guess what.

My dear Pudge has returned. 😍