I got my community newsletter today, and there’s an article in it announcing that rats have been seen in a few areas around our community; mostly dumpsters and areas like that.

But also they cited people feeding birds. Awhile ago, beneath that first floor balcony in the other building that used to feed the birds, I thought I saw a rat. It was after they had to take the feeders down and the woman instead would go out early in the morning and toss seed down in great bulk. A flock of pigeons was bad enough, but the day I thought I saw the rat, I really wished she would stop. So she has. I think she got “ratted out” on that little scheme too.

I’m pretty sure the peanuts I put out aren’t going to the rats. I keep the peanuts in my storage room, and it’s covered. I have never gone into the room and found it disturbed. I also put out so few peanuts in a small cup, that they get eaten just about every day.

But to be on the safe side, I will only put out a handful every morning, so at nighttime there are no peanuts left.

They said they’d make balcony inspections, but I don’t see how they can just enter our home whenever they want without telling us, so I’m not going to worry about that for now.

Still, it’s good to know. As much as I like providing a little snack for the birds, if I saw a rat that seemed to be feeding on discarded bird feed, I’d stop. Hopefully the sparrows won’t be the ones to gobble up the peanuts. I really like the tufted titmice and chickadees.