BS: Battling squirrels

Subject: RE: BS: Battling squirrels
From: GUEST,Auggie
Date: 29 Oct 04 - 09:28 PM

Thanks for the tip Little Hawk. I'll try the little black things tomorrow in my feeder if I can find them at the local hardware store.

Subject: RE: BS: Battling squirrels
From: Little Hawk
Date: 30 Oct 04 - 12:20 PM

Auggie, it also helps to have a feeder that is specifically designed for finches, and for dispensing those seeds. I suggest you look it up on some website about bird feeders. The seeds I'm speaking of are very tiny.

Have a look at this link, go to the bottom of the page, and you'll see some typical finch feeders (shaped like a tube). The finches pick the seeds out of little holes on the sides of the tube.

Various bird feeders

The type of feeder where a squirrel causes the most consumption of seeds is the kind where the seeds all come out at the bottom and just lie there, because the squirrel is inclined to gather them up in mouthfuls and spill lots more on the ground in the process. That doesn't happen with a tube feeder like those finch feeders. There it's more a case of getting one or two seeds at a time rather than scooping up a whole handful of them, so to speak.

There are various tube feeders for tiny seeds, medium-sized seeds, peanuts, and so on. The squirrels really like the peanuts about the best. Finches like the tiny seeds. Other birds like various of these choices.

Subject: RE: BS: Battling squirrels
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 02 Nov 04 - 12:57 AM

As I drove home this morning from dropping the kids at school I noticed a recently deceased squirrel in the street beside a neighbor's house. I intended to go scoop it up and leave it in the wooded area where it could be recycled without being ground into the pavement first. I parked, went into the house for a little while, then headed across the street to the neighbor to give them some peppers from the garden before retreiving the squirrel. The startling motion of a turkey vulture launching himself from the street caught my attention. My neighbor and I stood transfixed as he circled when disturbed by occasional passing vehicles, then settled back down to dine al fresco on squirrel tartar.

The fact that our city homes are surrounded by a couple of hundred acres of woods and prairie had a lot to do with this bird finding this squirrel. I mourn the day soon when those woods are torn down in the name of "progress" and 450 homes are built in their place. No room for vultures in that formula.

SRS