dugdale@camlot.DEC (Susan Dugdale CSSE MKO1-2/K13 264-4824) (08/14/85)
No matter how cute they may be, squirrels certainly are the bane of the bird feeder's existence. My father had the most successful solution, if somewhat extreme, that I have seen yet. Actually, my father's squirrel problem had to do with them stealing corn from his garden. I think he could have tolerated the loss of the corn, but the squirrels loved to take the stolen corn up into a nearby tree to eat it, and then had the nerve to drop the empty cobs down on the occupants of the lawn chairs below! Anyway, his solution was to trap the squirrels in a Have-a-heart (that's a brand name and my spelling is shaky) trap, which doesn't harm the animal in anyway. Once trapped, he would transport the critters in the back of his station wagon to a new home in a conservation area several miles away. (No flames on the ecosystem, please.) As for less drastic measures -- After having had several cheap plastic feeders devoured by squirrels and hearing a Droll Yankee salesman claim that they were using a new plastic that squirrels don't like, I broke down and coughed up the bucks for an expensive feeder and good squirrel guard. I have never seen a squirrel successfully navigate his way around the guard. However, since squirrels can jump somewhere in the neighborhood of 4 feet, I have not yet succeeded in finding a place to hang the feeder that the squirrels can not jump onto it from either the ground or a nearby tree and I don't need a ladder to fill it. On the positive side, although the little *#!@#'s are eating my bird seed, they have miraculously not done any damage to the feeder. Either the salesman's claim was correct or the metal perches and re-enforcements have kept the squirrels from getting a tooth-hold. I, too, am pleased to see a little more traffic in this newgroup, although I admit that it is one of my favorites because it isn't overwhelming to keep up with. I am a very casual birder, but I enjoy hearing about other people's sightings and behavoiral observations. I don't mind hearing about caged birds either, although they are not a pet I ever gave much thought to (I'm another one of those birders with a cat), and I am certainly looking forward to other people's war stories about squirrels. Susan Dugdale Digital Equipment Corp Merrimack, NH ...!decwrl!dec-rhea!dec-camlot!dugdale