feeding squirrels and birds

Back when I was a lad one of my uncles used to send us a big box of pecans every Christmas.  It seems like maybe there were too many to eat, or maybe it was so much fun, that had us kids feeding the nuts to the squirrels.  Why did we do it?  I think all kids like animals.  Why is that?  I don't know, kids are just naturally interested in everything, and animals are more interesting than rocks.  And kids like other kids, and animals are sort of like kids. 

But maybe another reason is we want to get close to animals.  At first we just tossed the pecans at them, but gradually we threw them closer to us.  It was a nervous zone for the squirrels.  They'd skitter up near the pecan, skitter back a bit, then closer, all the time keeping their big squirrel eyes on us, then pounce on the nut and run back to a safe distance.  But then the next nut was closer to us, and the next nut closer still.  The ultimate goal was to get them eating out of our hands, which in retrospect was a pretty stupid thing considering how closely fingertips resemble nuts, and that rabies thing.  

Considering how much my mother hated squirrels I'm surprised that she allowed us kids to do that, but I'm guessing this was before they ever broke into our garage.  Many years later when I would visit her in her retirement home, I would bring a packet of peanuts and we would go out to the garden and, though a big sign explicitly forbade it, feed the squirrels and this brought a smile to her face.

Maybe five years back I had good success with my sunflowers and come early fall, when the sunflowers, that only a month ago were standing tall and proud, straining to get nearer the sun to thee, had dropped their heads in utter despair and began to weep seeds, the finches came around to eat the tears.  How delightful to hear their song and watch them dance on the railings.  When the sunflower seeds were gone I bought flax socks to hang, and they come and they go.  I expect they have a better deal on some other balcony, but maybe that other person forgets to put out seed sometimes, or maybe they have a taste for something different, and they're hear and then they are not, and then they are here again.  When they go I say, Y'all come back now, hear?

In the summer my sister and I like to have lunch at some outdoor restaurant after she finishes her yoga on Friday.  I generally have a sandwich of some kind and so there is bread, and there are birds.  My sister points out that it is explicitly against the law, but the birds get my crumbs.  The same thing with the squirrels, closer and closer, and sometimes I am able to get them to eat out of my hand.

The finches I bribe because I like their song and dance.  The lunchtime birds are already there, but apparently that is not enough.  I want them to eat out of my hand.  Why is that?