Feathered friends and others....

This morning, like most mornings, the bird feeders were a very busy place! Our deck off the kitchen is about 10 feet or so off the ground. I have wooden planters attached to the top deck railing planted with yellow petunias. Usually my theme is red and white or pink and white, but this year I was feeling yellow. There are two large metal bird feeder poles attached to the top deck railing as well. These poles hold a feeder with sunflower and nut combination food for the larger birds, suet for my woodpeckers, a tube style feeder for my little birds, and a hummingbird feeder. There is usually a waiting line for the feeders in the morning and early evening.
We don't live in the woods but it is "country-like" here so of course we have the occasional squirrel. The dogs patrol the perimeter faithfully hunting out the rascally squirrels and they learn quickly to find somewhere else to hang out.....buuuut, there is one little red squirrel who just doesn't get it. This little red squirrel dearly loves the sunflower and nut seed and will lay in the tray of the feeder and eat until it can't hold another seed. On Sunday, the poor little thing was trapped on the lower deck support beam by two Brittany Spaniels just waiting....It was there for hours! The dogs were relentless and just sat there. Finally, we got the dogs inside and coaxed the squirrel down. Yesterday, he was trapped on the top of the deck railing and tried to climb up the side of the house, lost his grip, fell, and luckily just escaped Hanna who had turned away to get a drink. I just looked, and he is back.....