Well, it has been a while yet again. Sorry. Had a lot of things going on over the past month.
At any rate... let's talk squirrels. Yep. You heard me. Those pesky, yet adorable, amusing, yet irritating, little "tree rodents" (as The Man likes to call them)!!
Upon arriving here, they were EVERYwhere!! The house we were renovating had been vacant a few years. They had literally taken over the back yard since there was nothing going on there... and a nice big oak tree with plenty of room for them to hang out. The Man relocated a number of them to the nearby park area, hoping it would slow down the battles. Nope. Move one... two more move in!! For the past two years, they have come into the garage (when the door is open) where they found my well-covered buckets of bird seed and proceeded to begin the gnawing process of the lids!! New, more difficult-to-bridge lids have helped end that. They have bounced around all over the "bird areas" including the bird bath. They were kept clear of the feeders with the use of a baffle that does not allow them to climb the shepherd's hooks holding the feeders. Until a little earlier this summer...
In placing the bird seed feeders, I tried to place them where they would be shaded for a good portion of the day but without placing them directly under the big oak tree. I know squirrels can be creative! For the past two years, they have spent most of their time scrounging the ground beneath the feeders where some scraps of seed fall out or get kicked out by the birds. That's fine. What I did not pay attention to was the growth of the oak tree... until...
Yep. This little fella' wandered out to the end of a thin branch, then managed to leap onto the shepherd's hook, then made his way to his preferred feeder... the woodpecker "butter bar" as we like to call it. I watched him do it again later in the day, after scaring him off when I spotted him doing this! Okay. Have to change things.
So... I asked The Man to help me move the shepherd's hook further away from the limbs, which he did. Thought that had solved our problem until I saw a little guy on the feeder again!! WHAT?!? The only possible route was to climb the pole... which had a baffle on it to deter them. Discovered the baffle has to be at a higher location on the pole than we had placed it after moving the pole. Okay. That should resolve it.
One thing squirrels apparently do not do is give up easily. I say that as I spent some time at the French Door snapping the following pics for fun. Hope you can see the process. But... I will tell you the ending now... we won. Finally!! Whew!
And so... the feeders are now safe from the squirrels. Hopefully that will continue for a while... but I am keeping an eye on those little guys. They do NOT quit... ever.
Enjoy the rest of your summer!!!
Until next post...
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