..."Yo! You want a piece of THIS?!"

I had to blip this one because it made me laugh. I put some suet out today (only under supervision now since I have the bear to contend with) and settled down to see who would show up. It was the usual cast of downy and red-bellied woodpeckers, chipping sparrows, blue jays ... and grey catbirds. So the blue jay was bellied-up at the suet bar when the catbird arrived.
Catbird lands above jay and makes a few menacing noises (catbirds have huge vocabularies).
Nothing - jay keeps eating.
More menacing noises.
Still nothing.
Time to pull out the big guns - catbird puffs all its feathers out, hunches down and lets out a hiss.
Jay leaves.
The end.

And as a point of reference, THIS is what a catbird usually looks like, sensa puffage.

Glad you all enjoyed the bear yesterday. We have a huge population of black bears here, the largest in NJ and probably the entire eastern seaboard. They can be quite a nuisance if they start hanging around, and worse if they lose their fear of people. So, it is against local laws to feed them - a good policy, in my opinion. I have been pushing my luck keeping feeders up this summer - it is relatively safe in the winter when the bears are hibernating, but chancy in the summer. The bear yesterday was a young male, maybe even from litter I photographed last year (click HERE to see mom and 4 cubs). I would estimate that he probably only weighed a couple hundred pounds. Still, it would be best if he stayed away, so I won't be putting seed or suet out unless I am out to supervise. The hummingbird feeders seem not to be attractive to most bears, fingers crossed. And, maybe this will also dissuade little Rocky Raccoon from coming around so much... I feel like I am living in Wild freaking Kingdom!

I'm off to see what is happening in blipland now ...and hoping you all have a fab weekend!