It was cool to watch them in problem solving mode. The first few would get frustrated and fly away. One finally figured out all he had to do was to pull the nut out from under the side of the tape. After he'd done that a time or two, the rest of them followed suit.
Sparrows figure out stuff, too. I was walking past a block wall that was laid up three blocks high and waiting to cure so they could lay up the rest. I heard a sparrow chirping from within one of the cells of the block.
Sure as hell, the little bugger had gotten in and was sitting on the bottom with no way to get out. First instinct was to grab my hammer and knock out a cell to free him which wouldn't have gone over well with the block layers.
I grabbed a handful of sand and slowly started pouring it into the block. The bird freaked out at first, thinking I was trying to bury him. It didn't take long for him to figure out what was going on. He'd hover over on one side of the cell while I dumped in sand, then he's hop up on the pile while I poured sand down the other side. After five minutes or so, I had him standing high enough I could reach in and grab him. He didn't even look scared while I held him in my hands, and I swear if a bird could smile, he grinned when I turned him loose to the sky.
I love critters.
