Squirrel solution?

Sorry for the fuzzy picture. I was shaking from anger at the time. The squirrel was hanging by his feet, doing situps to the bird feeder. He would grab a sunflower seed and then just hang upside down and eat it. My wood feeders have little squirrel feet scratches all over the tops of them. They completely destroyed another feeder shortly after we moved in. Apparently the bb gun wasn't that scary to them.  Or this was a squirrel who had not felt the sting yet. Either way, something had to be done.

This morning I made a trip to Lowe's. The result:

 

I put up galvanized wire between two trees and made loops for the four bird feeders. The best feature is the section of PVC pipe on both ends near the tree. That way if a squirrel tries to walk out on it they will find themselves in a "log roll" of sorts. The design is inspired by the backpack hangers at back country campsites in the GSMNP. They have a hoist (which we didn't need) to get the packs away from the bears, and then they use PVC to prevent the smaller critters from walking down to your bag and eating through it.

Take that!!

As an aside, when I was taking picture from the deck I noticed this little chipmunk giving me the eye from his hideout in the rain gutter outlet.

Squirrel Update

I had my first opportunity at the squirrel behavior modification I mentioned earlier. Saturday morning we were working around the house and noticed that our squirrel was sitting on the dome that is suppose to block it from the feeders, eating away. I crept out on the deck, which is elevated and took a shot. I missed but got close enough to scare it away. So the next time he was up there I didn't even get a shot off because he was on the lookout. The third time I saw him up there, stretching from the dome to the feeder, perfectly broadside. I literally belly crawled out on the deck and poked the barrel of the bb gun through the pickets. Direct hit! It was sweet. I got him right in the side and he ran off. Christy got a shot off at one this morning. We have tons of them, so I have no idea if it is the same squirrel or not.

The sad thing is that it doesn't have to be this way. They could happily eat from the ground and gorge themselves on all that we spill as we fill the feeders. They could do that. But they don't. Instead they take our spillage for granted and demand more still. Not from me my friend. Not from me.

It's Go Time

I like squirrels. Really. But it's time to get serious with the ones in my back yard. They keep eating from our bird feeders, which I don't mind so much except they bend the pole that the feeder is hanging from. So we tried baffles and we Crisco-ed the poles. The grease seemed to work for a while and even now there is a huge mass of squirrel hair stuck to the pole. But apparently they pushed through the pain of be de-haired. Yesterday I saw one sitting on the baffle, eating seed from the feeder at will.

I would just kill the things but I read that an area can support x number of squirrels so if you kill one, another just shows up eventually. Behavior modification. That's what we're after. So, what would really sting the squirrel, but not kill it?

You guessed it:

Yesterday we saw him out there happily eating our seed and resting on the squirrel baffle. Mocking us. So we ran over to Wal-Mart and I plunk down 30 federal reserve notes for a 1938 Daisy Red Ryder bb gun. When we got back home he wasn't at the feeder any more but I saw him in the yard. Since I had just bought the bb gun I had to shoot something. I buzzed a bb right by him and he disappeared in a bush. It was probably a mistake to shoot at him when he wasn't actively exhibiting the behavior I'm looking to modify. Patience isn't my strong suit.

But, his time will come.