Blogtrek

Squirrel Circus

We like to feed the birds outside, using a feeder that hangs from a pole, as well as seed on the ground. We have had a variety of birds access our feeder, including red-bellied woodpeckers, nuthatches, juncos, cardinals, and mourning doves. The biggest problem we have had was squirrels. Every time we put out food there for the birds, squirrels would show up, as many as nine of them. They would climb up the pole and dangle down from the top of the cylindrical feeder and eat all its food. Most of our bird food was going to the squirrels instead. So we needed to stop them. Anne put out some metal pipe around the base of the feeder. That didn't stop them. They'd go to the top of the feeder by hopping from a nearby branch. So I cut off the branch. They still got to the feeder by leaping from the tree trunk to the feeder, a sizable distance. They were like flying squirrels, and once they got on the feeder pole, they'd dangle upside down and eat all the food.

Recently, at the Maymont Flower and Garden Show, I found a device being sold by Wild Bird Center in Richmond and Fredericksburg. It is a tall cylindrical feeder, like the one we have, but it has feeding holes only at the bottom, and it has a ring around it at the bottom for the birds to perch on. There is a battery-powered mechanism on the feeder that causes the ring to rotate rather strongly if pressure is put on it. If a bird were to land on this feeder, nothing would happen; the bird would be able to eat. If a squirrel were to land on this feeder, since it is heavier, it would cause the ring to rotate, and that would throw the squirrel off. I saw some comical video of this happening. Since we have a squirrel problem and since the feeder resembles the one we have, I purchased it for $100.

I then tried it out. I got no squirrels wanting to go to the feeder at first. Chickadees, titmice, and wrens landed on it and ate the food. At the end of the work week, I had more time to observe it. I saw some really comical action, although most of it was not squirrels getting whoaaaaa… thrown off the thing. I saw one squirrel dangling from the wooden post to the feeder, putting his paws gently on it. He was able some of the time to get the food out and eat it, although occasionally it would rotate. Apparently my new device failed. But no. I shifted the feeder to another hook, this time lower, so that the squirrel would have to dangle from slippery metal.

Later in the day, I saw a squirrel leap from the nearby tree to the right and out towards the feeder. Instead of going to the top of the pole, he apparently went straight for the feeding circle and completely missed, plopping on the ground, scaring birds and some other squirrels. I then saw one climb up the tree, make a flying leap to the feeder, and then he did not know what to do. He hopped from there to the top of the feeder. He tried leaning downwards. Then he retreated. Then he went back and leaned downwards again, and fell off, plop, on the ground. He tried this again, and this time he hopped from the top of the feeder to the top of the pole to the top of the metal area of the pole and so forth, not knowing which way to go. After a while he gave up.

Later I saw the squirrels try something else. Now they are thinking of leaping from the ground straight to the pole or feeder. I see them sit up on their hind legs. I have never seen so many squirrels act like prairie dogs in my life. One of them looked far up and strained his neck. Then he leaped for the black tape area of the pole, and instantly leaped from there to the ring on the feeder, whereupon the ring rotated, throwing the squirrel off the feeder. That one was really funny to watch.

Since then, many squirrels have been making prairie dogs at the feeder, but they have not attempted to access it. The device worked. Now birds may safely graze on the feeder. Birds have taken it over. There are still a few problems; for example, one mourning dove flew at the feeder repeatedly and then flew back down again or to the top of the pole. Apparently he thought he could get at the food. But I think the feeder has improved the bird situation considerably since I installed it. Try it some time if you want to thwart squirrels.