Dilegevanet

The competition is fierce. One single squirrel against hordes of birds: sparrows, chickadees, house finches, blue jays, nuthatches, woodpeckers, blackbirds, juncos, Bohemian waxwings and so on, too numerous to count. But she is persistent, determined to protect this stash of seeds for the winter. She sits, by the bird feeder, filling her cheeks with as many seeds as they can hold and then runs as fast as she can along the fence to her nest to store them safely away. Within seconds she races back to the tree to secure more seeds before the birds take them all.

Yes, the birds have returned. Dilegevanet!! The sky explodes with the flapping of wings as the birds fly off in all directions, vanishing to save themselves. The squirrel stubbornly chases those who did not fly off from one branch to another until they are all gone. She claims victory and fills her cheeks again, before heading to the shed where the birds cannot get them.

All too soon the birds return. The squirrel repeats her race towards the bird feeder. Dilegevanet explodes outside my window again, over and over and over, throughout each day.

This scene repeats itself until, at last, the feeder is empty. A sense of serenity returns to the back yard.

The human appears and refills the bird feeder. The battle resumes.