Strange title for a post, isn't it? For those of you who aren't immediately familiar with the reference, Genesis 3 describes the temptation and fall of humanity in the garden of Eden.
We have some bird feeders. Actually we have 3 finch feeders, 2 suet feeders, a large bird feeder filled with mixed seeds, and a sunflower seed bird feeder, which now stands empty (see below). We also spread corn for the squirrels during the day, and corn still on the cob for the deer at night.
Last weekend I was watching the finch feeders. There is room for 18 finches on the 3 feeders, provided they each are content to only have one perch. Therein lies the rub! I have never seen more than 8-10 finches at the feeders at one time, so you would think all would be well. Nope! Once there are more than about 3 finches to a feeder, they start fighting and chasing each other away. It's not like there is a shortage of seed; we keep them full. It is more a case of "protecting the resources"—for themselves, of course. Sound familiar?
It's not limited to the finches either, the squirrels are subject to it also. The sunflower seed feeder was their favorite destination. Even though there was an abundance of corn on the ground, and lots of seed falls from the feeders, they wanted to get to the source. So, they would climb, jump, risk their necks, etc., to get onto the sunflower seed feeder, driving the birds away.
We finally gave up and put corn in it, moving it further away from the bird feeders. The squirrels still loved the illicit seed better than the freely offered corn, even the corn in the feeder. It gets even better. We store our birdseed and corn in steel trash cans (plastic can be eaten through by sharp-teethed little animals) inside our shed. The shed is somewhat animal proof, but not totally. Now, bear in mind that there is an abundance of seed and corn lying around on the ground and in the feeders. There is no way that any squirrel is going to go hungry. But, at any given time, when the temperature gets warm enough, as it did last weekend, the smell of the corn in the cans wafts out of the shed. Then the squirrels go crazy. They run along the top of the shed, smell around the door, try to get in from underneath. It is amusing.
Why? There is an over abundance of food available. We have shown over the course of the winter that we will keep the feeders full and the corn scattered on the ground. We even gave them a separate feeder full of corn!
Hence my question, "To what extent Genesis 3?"
For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God; for the creation was subjected to futility, not of its own will but by the will of him who subjected it in hope; because the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and obtain the glorious liberty of the children of God. We know that the whole creation has been groaning in travail together until now... Romans 8:19-22 RSV
</idle musing>
1 comment:
When we lived in Michigan, we had a bird feeder that for some reason the squirrels did not bother, but he dynamics of how the birds interacted with it were interesting. I don't know if it was due to the location or the type of seed, but there were mostly three main types of birds we saw there: chickadees, cardinals, and blue jays. The feeder was a flat surface, just a board really, with a small rim around the edge to keep the seed from falling off. The whole thing was mounted on a post.
Chickadees were the most abundant type of bird, so there would often be several of them. If a blue jay came to the feeder, it would chase the chickadees away. There could be several jays feeding, or several chickadees, but you never saw a mixed group of blue jays and chickadess together.
If, however, there was a cardinal present, everything changed. The jays would not chase away the cardinals, nor would the cardinals chase away the jays, so then there could be two kinds of birds feeding at the same time, and sometimes a mixed group of all three kinds of birds. The only way we ever saw jays and chickadees at the feeder together was if there was also at least one cardinal. As near as I can figure, the cardinals were too large for the blue jays to confidently chase away, so they were forced to share in that case.
Post a Comment