Sunday, January 10, 2010

BOTTOMS UP! (SQUIRRELS and OTHER VISITORS)

THE SQUIRREL population has dramatically increased the last few years - a miracle, really, when you watch them run back and forth across the road. There is a pecan tree across the road, you see. My pecan trees are too young to have nuts.
I long ago learned that there is no such thing as a cheap bird feeder. The squirrels destroy the cheap ones sometimes in a matter of weeks. It would have been better to buy the more expensive one with metal guards on it in the first place. The little guys seem to figure out how to get into just about everything. Years ago we got a squirrel feeder. It did OK until the Coons found it and ripped it apart. It took a lot of patching to make it usable again, and, again, it was destroyed in the first week. My friend bought a new cedar one, and in one week, one squirrel who could not figure it out had chewed the plastic and the lid, see it? Then one evening I watched as a coon tried to take the back off. However, when they can figure it out, they seem to have a good time eating. I have been told I have the fattest squirrels in town. When the food level gets down, they just crawl right inside and eat.
And a question for you - why do they call this a squirrel BAFFLE? One of the squirrels hides under it. Guess it makes a good snow baffle... or umbrella? And, another new visitor. This pretty little thing didn't find any bananas the other night, so she came by to check out the cat food. I began to wonder if she was one I had released here, as she seemed quite tame. I did not try to touch her, just sat on the steps and took pictures. And a reminder to those of you who kill or scare off possums - they DO NOT GET RABIES, and they will eat mice and rats and all kinds of bugs AND they will eat poisonous snakes. POSSUMS ARE YOUR FRIEND! Just trust me on that - or google opossums and read all about them.

2 comments:

Rachel said...

Some people probably won't agree that possums are our friends! Poor things, so many get killed on the roads. I don't mind possums myself.

I haven't seen a squirrel here in a long time. I see them up and down the road when I'm driving, but none here. I'm glad you feed them and the birds. Looks like that baffle thing is not doing its job at all. The squirrels are too smart for that!!

Hope you are keeping nice and warm!

Ginnie said...

I used to love to watch squirrels until I saw how they would scare the birds away. Have you ever tried the greased wire where you string a wire from one tree to the next and put the bird feeder in the center. If it's long enough and the wire is kept greased it can actually work!