Working at my desk I can reach over and touch my office window. Just outside of glass about a foot or less, hangs my bird feeder. It hangs beneath three "scrub trees" (as Papa would call them) that's I've tied together, mainly so that they can bear the weight of the feeder and so it gives the little songbirds some cover from the Cardinals and Bluejays. Just for reference, my office window is about ten feet off the ground. This mess I have rigged up also allows me to reach right out of my window to fill the feeder as well. 

I get several visitors at the feeder throughout the day, and a half a dozen pairs I recognize on sight. The Titmice are my faves. 

This one is an older one and by the looks of that underbelly, I am wondering if it isn't a female carrying her next clutch. 



The Titmouse lands on the feeder and grabs a seed then jumps over to a nearby branch, pecks the sunflower seed to smithereens, and comes back to the feeder for more. 

The Chickadees hang out doing much the same thing, all day long, every day. 



I have the occasional Cardinal, Bluejay, Woodpeckers, Wrens, and a variety of other species that come around but the Titmouse and Chickadees are the regulars. They have all gotten accustomed to me sitting little more than an arm's length away and I am pretty sure if I went at it a bit I could probably hand feed them. Sometimes they just look me right in the eye like they are ready to chat. I get the occasional visitor right in the window sill. 



These birds bend and bow the branches of those three little trees as they come and go and I am so used to it that I typically don't notice much as I type away. 

Now, that feeder is close but hasn't always been quite as close as it is now. And there is a reason for that. 

Just a couple of days ago I was eating lunch at my desk, dogs were out like lights, and the cats were laid out somewhere doing whatever cats do. The place was pretty calm. All of a sudden I feel like I am being watched. You know the feeling; suddenly uncomfortable- on the spot like. 

Well, just three foot from my head...



Looks like the birds and I have a new visitor. And when I look over and stare at him, just a little startled myself, he just sat there, eyeballin' me, like, "Make your move!" 

So I pecked on the window and he acted as if he might leave, but then just kind of hung out, still eyeballin' me. 



And I do mean, hung out. 



"Oh hell no," I'm thinking. Three-pound squirrel is not testing me. I had wondered why the feeder was going empty so fast and now I knew. I raised the window real fast and off he went. 

I rearranged the branches of those three little trees and brought that feeder closer to the house, hoping it would be far enough away from any limbs that might support the tree rat. I made enough racket to raise the dead; wasn't anything wild hanging around my window. 

I sat back at my desk to finish my lunch and it wasn't long I feel eyeballs again. I turn to look and guess who is slinking up those branches all sneaky like? 



I can see he is realizing that the feeder is now about 18 inches farther away from where he can get to it and I can tell he is mad. 

I started laughing and this is the response I got. 



He's pissed. And this is why the birdfeeder got brought closer to the house. Hopefully, the branches holding it won't be enough to support this little monster raiding it every day. 

Hopefully.