Squirrels

[BlackSnake]

I’ve finally come to the point where I have to admit I’m not as smart as a common squirrel. I long ago had to admit I wasn’t as smart as a common ferret either, but that’s another story…

I have a couple of “squirrel proof” bird feeders hanging from branches of a palm tree in my backyard. Until recently, the feeders were quite effective in keeping the critters from decimating the bird seed. Well, it seems the crafty little bastards have figured out how to slip the feeders off the hooks and drop them to the floor where the feeder contents are easy pickings…

It seemed like the short s-hook was the weak link, so I bent up a thick piece of rebar hoping it would offer better squirrel resistance. Uh uh, this morning, both feeders were on the ground, so I guess it’s game on…

Now I have to “engineer” a hook system that can stymie the critters…I don’t like my odds, these guys are wily…

[Tom Wells]

Mike,

I feel your pain

I have 2 feeders the same as the lower one in your photograph.

A few days ago I noticed a squirrel upside down on one of them. When he was finished exploring the feeder he had big trouble climbing back up the wire it hangs from. It was comical! Kay and I laughed a lot as he tried to climb up and slid back down repeatedly.

We laughed even more as a large red-shouldered hawk made a pass at the squirrel, hitting the wire as he went by and kept going, The squirrel, now extremely motivated, made it up the wire in record time. We laughed a lot over that sequence of events.

The next day I discovered why I shouldn't have laughed. I noticed the feeder was totally empty. I lowered it and turned it over. This is what I found:

Feeder hole 1.JPG (3.24 MiB) Viewed 1140 times

The bugger had chewed a hole in the bottom allowing all the seed to dump on the ground for him and his buddies to scarf up!

I'd seen that hole before: about six months ago the other feeder looked the same. I chalked it up to 6 years in the Florida weather and got a new seed tube from the manufacturer under their warranty. It is now plain as day that one suffered the same (chewing) fate as this one.

Out of curiosity I looked at the other feeder and found this:

Feeder hole 2.JPG (3.6 MiB) Viewed 1140 times

It's now obvious that work had begun again on the feeder with the new seed tube.

So now it's the human's move. I made hardware cloth screens and put them below each feeder's seed tube. Here's what they look like:

Feeder bottom screen.JPG (3.48 MiB) Viewed 1140 times

I refilled the feeders.

Squirrel's turn...

[BlackSnake]

Terry G tells me they chewed through the SS cable, so you may not be proof just yet. My have not learned that trick yet, so I hope yours won’t contact them and spill the beans…

[BlackSnake]

Btw, this is the system I devised to prevent them from being knocked to the ground. I’ll heed your warning and add some wire mesh protection as well…