Very Loud Frog and Other Noisy Wildlife

A few weeks ago I was on the couch watching some evening TV and I kept hearing frog sounds and at first thought it was coming from the TV even though whatever I was watching shouldn't have had frog sounds as part of the background. I turned off the sound on the TV and went to the front door to investigate and we have the LOUDEST FROG IN THE WORLD living across the street. He is LOUD. I was totally reminded of the big mouth frog joke that goes something like this:

There was a frog with a really big mouth travelling around one day. He came to a barn and saw a cow.
“HELLO COW, WHAT DO YOU FEED YOUR BABIES?”
The cow replied, “Milk.”
The frog nodded. “OH, IS THAT SO.” He then hopped along to a fence and saw a horse.
“HELLO, HORSE, WHAT DO YOU FEED YOUR BABIES?”
The horse replied,”Hay.”
The frog nodded, “OH, IS THAT SO.” He then hopped along to the river and he saw a snake.
“HELLO, SNAKE, WHAT DO YOU FEED YOUR BABIES?”
The snake replied, “Frogs with big mouths.”
The frog mumbled, “oh, is that so.”

We hear him each evening now, I guess it's that time of year and he is looking for a lovely girl frog to come and share his yard. Or whatever it is frogs make loud noises for.

We also have some very noisy birds in the back yard. We used to feed the birds but took down the feeders a few years back because of the expense and the mess and the cats trying to get the birds and then knocking into the feeders and spilling all the food out. But, we were in Walmart one day and saw a big display of bird seed and thought we would try it again because it is nice to be able to watch birds from inside the house, not to mention the cat entertainment factor.

Instead of buying a new bird feeder, we decided to repurpose the bird bath that was in the front yard that no bird ever took a bath in and bring it around to the back yard and put bird seed in it. At first it was ignored because the birds were not used to finding seed in our yard but within a week or so the scrub jay found it when Keith put some of his peanuts in shells in it and scrub jays apparently like peanuts. We would watch as he would swoop down, grab a peanut, then fly off. Then we saw him bury some of the peanuts in the flower bed, so scrub jays must stash food for later like a squirrel.

Soon enough, the smaller birds found the seed and then the doves came along and now we have quite the assortment of birds coming into the yard. And they must be very happy birds because they chirp. And sing. And CHIRP. And SING. And sometimes it gets incredibly LOUD.

Irritated

Just irritated. My head hurts and I don't feel like dealing with demanding customers today. Yes, I know the customer is always right and I should bend over backwards for every sale, but you know what? For $4.00 it just is NOT worth it to completely redo a listing because you want it a little different. For $40.00 maybe, but for $4.00 a resounding NO! And, if you don't see it in my shop, chances are I DON'T HAVE IT OR IT WOULD BE LISTED!

Okay, now I feel a little better.

A mystery was solved this morning. We have a fancy bird feeder that was hanging in front of the kitty window, but we moved it against the garage after our kitties kept crashing into the window trying to get a bird. Not to mention the time when the window was open and they crashed through and broke the screen trying to get a bird.

So, we moved it over where they could still see it but not be quite so tempted, and Keith filled it with bird seed only to come out and find bird seed not in the feeder but scattered all over the sidewalk. Was it the big blue jays that like to chase off the smaller birds and get all the goodies for themselves? Were they kicking out all the unwanted seed as they rummaged through the offerings?

Nope

This morning I looked out to see the neighbor's black and white kitty sitting directly under the bird feeder salivating at the sight of the innocent little bird that was sitting on the feeder, totally oblivious to the danger below. Then, wham! a leap up as far as little kitty could go and the bird feeder was swinging around wildly, spraying, you guessed it, bird seed all over the sidewalk. The bird of course flew away long before the kitty could get its paws on it.

This is the same kitty that was chasing the dog down the sidewalk and also craps in our yard every chance it gets.