Larry and his bird family

It really isn't his family because he doesn't like to be around them. The top picture shows some miscellaneous birds at my bird feeder. It hangs from the middle of my deck,

and so far no squirrels have been able to access it although they look at it quite a bit.

The bottom picture is Larry, sitting by the water in the garlic container lid. He sits there a lot. He gets really puffy and fat - maybe he's sleeping. The other birds don't do that - they just eat up a storm and then fly away. Larry will sit there after dark and just sleep. I love it that he does that! I feel like he's part of my family since I don't have any family in town. Larry will chase the other birds away from him and never wants to be with them. He's a real loner - maybe that's the way sparrows are with other birds. I know my mom didn't like sparrows, and when she was sewing little pearl beads on my wedding dress before my wedding, she had a gun beside her on the grass on the lawn. Sparrows were trying to get into a swallow's nest and my mom liked the little swallows. So when a sparrow would fly up my mom would take a shot! But I don't have that problem, and I also don't have a gun. Larry doesn't ever use the feeder. I read that sparrows just eat off the ground or a ledge. So that's what he does. He runs around under the feeder and eats what the other birds throw out!

My deck is a mess - it's covered in bird shit. They sit on my deck chairs and shit all over them. They also shit all over the Safeway bag I use to cover the birdseed. The birdseed is in a big tupperware container and the birds fly up and stare at it! So with the bag covering it, it doesn't seem to bother them. I have friends who invite people over for cocktails on their decks in the summer, but would I ever do that? I don't think so. If I cleaned it all up before company came, they would still have time to shit on everything. So we just sit inside with the air conditioning on while the birds have fun on the deck. I thought maybe Safeway would pay me for advertising their store on my deck, but they probably didn't hear about it. And now with all the shit on it, they'd probably bill me for something like the banks do.

I love having the birds so close. They seem more accustomed to seeing me walking around in my living room. I wonder if I left the sliding door open, they would come hopping in? I don't think I'll try that!