THE SQUIRREL WAR

I have an on-going war of my own here in Vienna-The Squirrel War! I love my birds and love to watch them, so I feed them. Mr & Mrs. Squirrel love bird seed. I have spent years fighting skirmishes with those little imps. They eat all of the feed out of the feeders, they will chew up the feeder, they have chewed through a heavy duty large garbage can to get to the food-THEY ARE RELENTLESS-and so am I! The above feeder is the first "Squirrel Proof" feeder I put up. I asked for this for some occasion and BC obliged with a bow on top. The lever at the front of the food causes a door to close over the food when anything heavier than a bird lights on it. Genius-OR SO I THOUGHT. You will note the scratch marks on the top of the feeder. They were caused by the squirrels hanging on the top and leaning over the feeder to eat without sitting on the lever. THOSE LITTLE VARMINTS!

I have just purchased a new feeder off of E Bay-ANOTHER GUARANTEED SQUIRREL PROOF feeder. Here is the view from my favorite chair in the den. You will note the hummingbird feeder and both regular feeders are in my direct view.

The tree to the left of the feeder makes for a perfect launching pad for the seed quest. If that should fail, they actually can climb up the metal pole.

This is a Carolina Chickadee at the feeder. He was quite the little pig-sitting and chowing down for a long time.

This is Mr. Titmouse sitting eating a sunflower seed that he had just snagged from the feeder. The titmouse sweeps in and gets one seed, he then flies off and eats that one seed and then back for another. Really amusing to watch and amazing since some of the birds just sit there and eat until they are satisfied.

I caught the titmouse in the act of pulling out a seed. When I first looked at this feeder-I had my doubts about the birds being able to get to the seed. There did not seem to be a problem.

This is a closer look at the makeup of the new feeder. The birds find the food within an hour of putting it out. Mr. Squirrel has not made the discovery yet. There is ample supply of pine cones right now and I have found the evidence of clean pickings from the squirrels lately. Perhaps he had rather eat those cones for now. We shall see!

Look behind the geranium and you will see Mr. & Mrs. Cardinal on the ground. They also seemed to appreciate the lunch.

There was a time that I decided to put out a live trap and take the little varmints off. After a couple of days of ignoring the nuts I had placed in the trap, it occurred to me that they LOVE sunflower bird seed. That became the new bait and they could not resist it. After I had trapped and taken off (I'll never tell where) more than 20 squirrels, I GAVE UP. It was like a vacuum-the more I emptied out-the faster it filled up.

I will keep you posted on how the LATEST AND GREATEST GUARANTEED SQUIRREL PROOF FEEDER works. I actually enjoy the challenge and look forward to winning the war -SOMEDAY!