Human vs. Squirrel: The Battle of Wits Is On

[n2doc]

BY JENNY MORBER



Feed the birds, they said. It will be fun, they said.

Early this spring I bought a simple wood-and-plastic bird feeder. My children and I filled it with feed that promised to lure colorful birds, hung it from a tree in the front yard within view of the kitchen window, and waited. A few weeks later the birds arrived. Blue jays, robins, chickadees, cardinals, orioles, and wrens flew in, flitted down, and pecked at food. My children were delighted, and so was I.

On the fourth morning I spotted a squirrel. Brown and gray with a white belly and an anxiously darting, reddish tail, it crept up the tree, and stopped on a branch just above the feeder. Grabbing the branch with its hind legs, the squirrel flipped upside-down and rappel-stretched down to the feeder’s opening. “Oh, look at the cute, little squirrel,” I thought, “It wants some food too.” Within a few minutes the feeder was on the ground, battered and broken.

After piecing together the feeder several more times, only to have a squirrel dismantle it within hours, I hopped online to find a more squirrel-resistant version. Many feeders looked promising. At least some reviewers called each one of them junk.

The feeder with the cage around it? Squirrels chewed through the bars or shook out the seeds. The one that closes down when something heavy pushes on the perch? Squirrels hang off of one perch to get at the others. Hang it from a string? Strings are a squirrel’s invitation to play. Want a shepherd’s hook? The squirrel just climbs the pole or jumps up from the ground. Maybe if we put out food for the squirrel? The squirrels don’t only get full; they get more plentiful.

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[LongTomH]

1. "Up periscope!"

Did anyone else think of a movie submarine commander when they saw that squirrel pose?

[unblock]

26. no, only you ;)

but now that you mention it,

[WhiteTara]

2. I tried to do battle with squirt guns and

every time the squirrels would get to the feeder I would shoot them with the water...then I added vinegar and spent inordinate amounts of time in the kitchen waiting for them to come. The more I would shoot, the more would come from the forest. It was like a huge contest to try and combat nature. I decided to stop feeding for the rest of summer. I found slinkys at a bird trade show. I'll let you know what happens.

[Baitball Blogger]

3. I have a glorious video of a squirrel who Hail Mary'd himself and jumped

heroically from a tree trunk to the anti-squirrel birdfeeder, (The length from the trunk to the birdfeeder a span of at least fifteen feet.) He managed to jump firmly on the birdfeeder and took down the limb the feeder was hung on. Success.

Nothing baffles a squirrel forever.

[Erich Bloodaxe BSN]

4. I've been told to mix pepper in with the bird food.

Supposedly there are only a couple of avian species that have a sense of taste or smell, so they don't even notice it.

Personally, though, I don't mind feeding the squirrels and field mice as well as the birds. I've even seen wild rabbits eating some of what falls on the ground, and once a possum, at which point I stopped putting it out later in the day, so that it would all be gone before nightfall. I don't want my dogs tangling with anything that big, and the feeder is close to the inner fence between the patio and the rest of the yard.

I also only put thistle seed out in feeders like that pictured, and the squirrels don't seem interested in it. They go for the peanuts and sunflower seeds mostly.

[Thor_MN]

6. My Dad has a fox that will come and eat sunflower seeds.

They wind up feeding everything from humming birds to the normal song birds to ducks, geese, sea gulls, chipmunks, squirrels, anf the fox.

[Thinkingabout]

7. I have heard about the pepper flakes also, was told squirrel have saliva glands

And this caused the take to burn their mouth and birds do not have saliva glands so the pepper flakes has vitamins for them.

[Orsino]

25. Except for the few squirrels that are okay with it.

The pepper trick greatly reduced the number of squirrel thieves we faced (and mixing one-to-one with non-pepper seed worked just as well), but at least one of the little bastards didn't seem to care.

All that has really kept the squirrels away is the inverted bucket on my freestanding feeder. They can pick up loose seed around the base, but they can't climb the post.

[BlueJazz]

5. I feed them 'cause I like them. I was thinking of putting about 10 feeders around the yard.

Maybe the birds and squirrels would stake a claim on a few.

[shraby]

8. Put all your bird/squirrel food on the ground. They all like it that way. We put some of the

peanuts in the crotches of the big old maple and the squirrels can get some the birds don't cause the birds are busy at another spot eating all kinds of seeds off the ground. We also put out dried corn on the cob..a couple of them a day and they last about 15 minutes before the squirrels disappear them. (drag them to wherever they think they need them)
Everybody is happy, and we don't have to spend a dime on the feeders.

[BlueJazz]

9. Well...there you go. I was definitely over-complicating the whole bird/squirrel dining experience.

Are you sure that maybe little signs pointing to the...Naw...your way is easy and logical.

[shraby]

16. We started tossing the bird food on the ground so the doves could eat too. They're too heavy

for the feeders. They like the safflower seeds. In the winter they will start lining up on the electric wires waiting for the magic time, then start coming down in 2s and 3s to eat. Counted over 70 on the wires one day. We had plenty out there for all.
Sometimes the squirrels will get into the sunflower seeds, right along with the birds, all eating at the same time..Jays, Grackles, finches, etc. One big smorgasborg for them.

[AlbertCat]

19. They all like it that way.

I don't think so. Some birds are ground feeders.... like Cardinals. And some birds do not like to eat off the ground.... like finches.

Squirrels will eat anywhere in any position.

[shraby]

22. The finches are right in with the pack eating like there's no tomorrow.

[840high]

18. I feed them all - even

have some possums eating what's on the ground.

[DeadLetterOffice]

10. The squirrels will ALWAYS win.

ALWAYS.

[shraby]

14. No they don't. We had to delay putting out the peanuts for the squirrels for a period

of time because the Grackles and Jays like those too and would hog them down. That's when we started some in the tree as well as on the ground. We finally got a good compromise going so all could eat. Squirrels need food too and there is nothing cuter than a little ones in the crotches of the tree chowing down. Meanwhile over by the shed, the birds take turns eating depending on the type of bird. Come night time we have a fox that makes a stop and we had a raccoon in last night maybe after the fallen apples.

[dixiegrrrrl]

24. Except...when you hang feeders from the roof soffits.

The feeders are 8 feet in the air. Birds can get the food, squirrels can't.

Our other feeder hog is raccoons....the hanging feeders stop them, too.

[Treant]

11. My bet's on the squirrel.

The human has other things to do during the day. The squirrel can spend every moment figuring out how to get to those sweet, sweet seeds.

[valerief]

12. Respect the squirrel! Ha! nt

[ErikJ]

13. My squirrels are busy hiding nuts around the yard this time of year

Prepper squirrels or farmers? Lots of nut trees come up in the yard thanks to them.

[shraby]

15. We have corn growing all over the place.

[ErikJ]

17. Pop-up corn?

They do that with sunflowers too I think. Maybe I'll plant some corn next yr.

[AlbertCat]

20. In high school....

...... there was this squirrel in our back yard that would let you get real close before scampering off. So I got the Christmas nuts my mother put in the freezer and only set out at Christmas (no one ever ate them, because everyone in my family was too lazy to crack them open ) I started trowing them to the squirrel until he took one out of my hand. The next day, of course, there he was waiting for me. All summer, when I went into the back yard, he would show up and climb up onto my shoulder. My friends thought it was the coolest thing.

So I fed him all summer and the had to go back to prep school in the fall. I never saw him again.

He probably starved because he didn't know how to forage....

[broiles]

21. It they're so smart, why can't they learn to cross a street safely?

[shraby]

23. They cross on the wires. Saw them do it.