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One of my hobbies is feeding wild birds. I have made my yard bird friendly with not only feeders, but cover, water and natural sources of food too. I like to keep track of which birds visit my yard, noticing each species. I find something relaxing about watching them come and go. If anyone has ever fed birds in squirrel country you can understand the effort it takes to keep the little buggers out of your feeders.
The red (or Douglas) squirrels are totally welcome into my little environment because they are indigenous to this area. They don't trash the feeders and when they eat their fill there's plently for the next critter. The big gray squirrels (Eastern Gray) are not from around here and are not welcome. I do tolerate them by scattering seed around the feeder areas to keep them satisfied so they won't be apt to raid the feeders I don't want them in. Usually that works okay, but from time to time they get too aggressive and start raiding my feeders, knocking them down and taking all that's inside. It wouldn't be as bad if they actually ate the seed, instead they take it and bury it all over the yard.
When they get past the baffles, barriers and other methods to keep them out I usually resort to the pellet gun to plunk them in the rump. It's funny actually when you hit them. In one of my enclosed feeders they cannot get out very quickly and when they get plunked, it turns into a sort of "squirrel machine" as the little gray fuzzy blur tries to find the way out.
But that only works for so long. When there are too many of them. There is only one thing to do. The humane thing to do; admit them to the Squirrel Relocation Project (S.R.P.) using the live animal trapping method. The last picture is from the latest entry in to our relocation efforts which began again this weekend. Meet; "C.B." ("Coyote Bait") busted hoarding and burying black oil sunflower seeds. Now he will take his feeder raiding talents east of the Cascades, to the Manastash Ridge View Point overlooking the Kittitas Valley.
Good luck in your new voracious endeavors and watch out for the coyotes!
One of my hobbies is feeding wild birds. I have made my yard bird friendly with not only feeders, but cover, water and natural sources of food too. I like to keep track of which birds visit my yard, noticing each species. I find something relaxing about watching them come and go. If anyone has ever fed birds in squirrel country you can understand the effort it takes to keep the little buggers out of your feeders.
The red (or Douglas) squirrels are totally welcome into my little environment because they are indigenous to this area. They don't trash the feeders and when they eat their fill there's plently for the next critter. The big gray squirrels (Eastern Gray) are not from around here and are not welcome. I do tolerate them by scattering seed around the feeder areas to keep them satisfied so they won't be apt to raid the feeders I don't want them in. Usually that works okay, but from time to time they get too aggressive and start raiding my feeders, knocking them down and taking all that's inside. It wouldn't be as bad if they actually ate the seed, instead they take it and bury it all over the yard.
When they get past the baffles, barriers and other methods to keep them out I usually resort to the pellet gun to plunk them in the rump. It's funny actually when you hit them. In one of my enclosed feeders they cannot get out very quickly and when they get plunked, it turns into a sort of "squirrel machine" as the little gray fuzzy blur tries to find the way out.
But that only works for so long. When there are too many of them. There is only one thing to do. The humane thing to do; admit them to the Squirrel Relocation Project (S.R.P.) using the live animal trapping method. The last picture is from the latest entry in to our relocation efforts which began again this weekend. Meet; "C.B." ("Coyote Bait") busted hoarding and burying black oil sunflower seeds. Now he will take his feeder raiding talents east of the Cascades, to the Manastash Ridge View Point overlooking the Kittitas Valley.
Good luck in your new voracious endeavors and watch out for the coyotes!
Seems like a perfectly good waste of food to me. Considering the Great Depression (Part II) we've got coming at us, there's no time like the present to get acquainted with the delicacy of bacon-wrapped-squirrel. Mmm, mmm, good. Just like Pappy used to make.
ReplyDeleteThanks Steve, It will take quite a bit before I look at one of these lil critters as dinner. Although, I could use a furry tail to replace my Jack In The Box antenna ball, or maybe even added to my camping hat.
ReplyDelete**UPDATE!**
After relocating only one gray squirrel, it appears the raids have ceased. The red squirrels have been out in force, the grays thin on the ground over the last week.
That could change at any time and I expect their return as spring gets rolling.
One noticeable difference between the gray and red squirrels;
The grays gather up seed/food and run off to bury it somewhere - usually my yard - to be forgotten about later. They will wipe out a feeder by this method.
The reds also gather seed/food but they dig out one stash, not 1000 of them all over the yard. Those critters eat their fill, THEN start gathering up seeds and putting them down a larger hole they've dug out.
I did notice the red's raiding the gray's little stashes all over the yard and under the feeder. It's as if they know how the gray's operate. Two reds worked over the ground under the feeders like vacuums. You could tell when they found a stash; they'd sit up on their haunches and start shelling seed for a few minutes before moving on to finding the next.