The Enemy?

Alright folks, with any luck in my readers' corner, this will be my last bird feeding related post. I just couldn't resist snapping a shot of this lil' B*****D who is stealing my birds' food! I can't decide whether to enjoy his presence and the fact that he is a cute, fuzzy, wild critter not that much different than the birds frequenting my feeders OR to pop him off the feeder with a well-placed 22 bullet. The latter is tempting because it would definitely save me money on seed and help the birds to get to their food more often. This little guy shows up every day to help empty the feeder. I have to give him credit because for me, sunflower seeds are not even close to being worth all of the trouble but this little guy will hang upside down next to the tube for hours on end just picking them apart to eat the meat inside. In fact, if I let the small tube empty out, he jumps over to the wooden bird feeder and sits on top, reaching down into the feeder and then shelling the seeds on top...he usually gets a good little pile going before he knocks it all off when he jumps down. I have to admit, he is cute and I'm sure he's just as hungry as the birds are but it's sure frustrating when you wake up wanting to see what interesting birds are on your feeders and you look out to find only a fuzzy little acrobat hanging upside down, thinking he has a monopoly on the buffet in the back yard. As I'm sitting here watching him, I can't help but to remember when I was a kid and used to go out to Grandma and Grandpa's, hoping to shoot a squirrel and get Grandma to cook it for me. There were always so many of them jumping around in the trees out there and for a young boy such as myself, it seemed that their only purpose was for my hunting pleasure. Once, when I was going over to spend the night, I asked Grandma at church if she was ready for me to come out and rid them of their squirrel population and she just kinda laughed. Later that day, she called my Mom, worried about the squirrels because she said that she didn't want to tell me I couldn't shoot them but that she enjoys watching them play together in the afternoons because they're so cute how they chase each other through the trees etc...etc. Needless to say, my young hunters' extravaganza was cut short that day but I understood and perhaps gained an interesting perspective that I had never considered before. Perhaps that is still to this day why I have trouble popping this little turd off of my feeder. Admittedly, he is cute and it absolutely amazes me that he can hang on to the tree with his rear legs and just hang there dangling while pulling seeds out and eating them! I suppose I will let him live another day but if he ever starts messing with the goldfinch feeder, he's toast..cute toast but toast no less, haha!