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February 01, 2007

Ravening Hordes

So my daughter called this morning, and I was telling her about taking Sollie out in the snow dressed in his new fleece-lined suede jacket. I said he looked like Ghengis Khan....and she had no idea who that was even after I said you know, Mongol hordes pillaging their way across Asia & into Europe. Not a clue.

Jeez, I don't know what they teach in school these days but it damn sure isn't history.

I've spent the remainder of the day battling a squirrel that'd figured out how to get into my supposedly squirrel proof bird feeder. It's spring loaded, so if anything heavier than a small bird gets on it, they trip the feeder closed. Now there's one blackbird that's figured out how to sit on it sideways a certain way which spreads his weight out enough to not close the feeder....but I admire his ingenuity so I don't really mind him chowing down.

But the squirrel is different b/c they can clean out a bird feeder in nothing flat. And since they eat every pecan & walnut we have before I can get any, I'm not real inclined to feed them anything else. This little red squirrel, which are somewhat smarter than their grey counterparts (if you can call any squirrel smart), had figured out if he deliberately tripped the spring loaded part of the feeder, he could then flip the lid off the feeder & get all the seeds he wanted.

Little bastard.

I tried moving the feeder, removing branches and about 100 other different things before I got the feeder where the squirrel couldn't get into it. I think. You know if we didn't live in town, I know an easy solution to my squirrel problem. But I don't think having my name in the police reports for firing a gun within city limits would add to my job security. So I spent almost the entire afternoon trying to outsmart a squirrel.

Good times.

I am SO ready to go back to work.

Posted by Rita at February 1, 2007 04:49 PM

Comments

My Squirrel-proof feeder was SP for about 1 week. I was so proud of myself for outwitting those little varmints. I was able to keep the spring at the heaviest setting and feed every bird (I don't even mind feeding blue jays), but not any squirrels.

That changed drastically. The gray squirrel figured out he could sit on top of the feeder, stretch over, and as long as he balanced off the side of the feeder, not the bar, he could hook out the seeds at will.

The red squirrel did it slightly differently, but with the same results.

That's okay, I found the perfect way to keep the squirrels away - have a bear tear down the tree and mangle the feeder - the squirrels are no longer interested when the feeder has been thrown away!

Posted by: bogie at February 4, 2007 07:45 AM

I think I'll pass on the bear. I tried putting out a quartered apple to entice the squirrel away from the feeder. He carefully carried each piece out into the yard & buried them under the snow, then went right back to the feeder. He's persistent, I'll give him that.

Posted by: Rita [TypeKey Profile Page] at February 4, 2007 08:45 AM