Hi, I am Mr. Duck and I am running for Prime Minister of this backyard. A vote for me means more spending on cracked corn and less on costly niger seed. By spending less on niger seed, we can raise the number of daily cracked corn feedings to four up from the current two! I can't promise that there will be no more 5 am quacking, but I will work with my colleagues to ensure that we continue to only poop in designated areas where the rain can easily wash it away. I will share the cracked corn feedings with all so all our feathery families will prosper. On Monday May 2, vote Mr. Duck!
 
Well, Mr. Duck does look like he is posing for an election campaign poster, but unfortunately for him, my backyard is a monarchy and the reigning royal family, whose members have big bushy tails and black or gray fur, is not going to allow that to change! Shortly after I took this photo, Mr. Duck went campaigning in the lawns among smaller songbirds and members of the bushy-tailed royal family. Mr. Duck's position was challenged and the outcome literally saw the furry royalty maintaining charge of the feeding area with tooth and claw! The smaller songbirds wanted to support Mr. Duck and his election promise of sharing his proposed four times daily cracked corn feedings with all, but the smaller songbirds know that the reigning royal family may gang up on them and eat their eggs come nesting season if they dared to stand up for Mr. Duck. So the situation in my backyard continues as it always has. The reigning royal family with their bushy tails will continue to dominate the feeding scene, continue their oppression of the smaller songbirds, demand gifts of shelled peanuts to maintain order, urinate all over my deck and wreck my bird feeders. With visits from weasels and big hawks too infrequent to have an effect on the monarchy and the crows too cowardly, the reign of squirrel is total and absolute. Only the small area of water Mr. Duck and his family occupy offer sanctuary within the kingdom of squirrel.