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Sunday, September 4, 2011

Squirrels: do they drive you nuts?

Let me introduce you to Q, our resident squirrel. Like all red squirrels, she specializes in being a chatterbox, an acrobat, and a flying trapeze artist.
She also enjoys relaxing on the back deck.



And, of course, raiding the bird feeders.





This homemade number was designed to be raccoon-resistant, meaning we wouldn't care if a raccoon ripped it apart. Q was delighted. So accessible! 



The finch feeder was a snap once she got it off the hanger.
That took about 30 seconds.



Here Q is filling her cheeks with black-oil sunflower seeds - again.



Chattering at me - from a bird house, of course.




So I bought this SQUIRREL-PROOF feeder at The Commons Swap 'n Shop last weekend. You can see how very effective it was. (Luckily, the price was right.) However, the tale has a happy ending. Being of superior intelliegence to a rodent (did you know squirrels are members of the rodent family?) my husband stretched out the coil that allowed the cage around the feeder to slide up and down just enough to actually cover the openings when Q climbed aboard. Success! I was very impressed. With Q too. She gave up quickly - since there are a dozen other feeders for her to choose from. I mean, really, why knock yourself out?

1 comment:

N. said...

You may not want to advertise commercial products, but, having trouble with one or more Norwegian rats (apparently naturalized coming up from the beach and not at all interested in bothering us otherwise), we tried the Brome feeder and the Duncraft suet feeders from:

http://www.backyardbird.ca/squirrelproofbirdfeeders.html

They are a bit expensive but they work. One of the nice things about the suet feeder is that it doesn't keep the woodpecker tribe away. With their long beaks they can easily reach inside from the outer cage.