Outside our living room is a Rose of Sharon tree in a small garden. A bird bath, lots of sunflower seeds. 3 bird feeds—a buffet—and two birdhouses. A wren family occupies one. They know how to sing!

Every story needs a villain. A nemesis. Squirrel. Squirrels have no table manners; absolutely none. One hangs upset down from the feeder roof with toe nails dug in and uses front paws to extract seeds and eat them.

A variety of birds visit the garden neighborhood and bird feeder. Some aggressive grackles, a pair of Cardinals, a huge blue jay, not enough yellow finches. A grosbeak showed up for a couple of days to drink out of the hummingbird feeder. Big black birds come uninvited. Last week a Turkey Vulture circled while I was extracting a partially eaten, partially decayed possum.

I was watching the squirrel hanging upside down when he was buzzed by the wren. A wren is a little larger than a hummingbird and smaller than a finch. The wren aggressively kept attacking the squirrel to scare it away. I think he was trying to knock the varmint off the feeder. He didn’t have the body size or weight to inflict any damage or knock the squirrel off. But he or she has not given up trying.

I explained to the wren he needs to talk the male cardinal or that blue jay into a couple of fly-by warnings. That blue jay could knock the squirrel off the feeder and perhaps into a pattern of better behavior.
The wren would benefit by being a community organizer. Assign the big birds as blocking backs. I have never seen the wren eat out of that feeder. It appears Mom and Pop Wren are guarding their little house and family.

Last week the common message among several of my podcasters was: “Strengthen your strengths and manage your weaknesses. Andy Stanley says, “Enlarge your strengths and delegate the areas of your weaknesses. Use your best time doing what you do best and empower others to do what they do best that you’re not so good at.

Now all I have to do is enroll my birds in an Andy Stanley Avian seminar.

An aviary community organizing: Strengthen your strengths. Manage your weaknesses.

©2017 D. Dean Benton dean@deanbenton.org