The Squirrel War
There’s a war going on in our backyard.
My husband fills the bird feeders and the birds gathered. We love watching them from our kitchen table. Too often when we look out, the squirrels are on the feeders snarfing down the birdseed.
That wasn’t too bad. We kept refilling the feeders.
Then the critters got greedy and started on our peach tree.
For the first time, we had 20-30 baby peaches on our backyard tree. And, sadly, the furry-tailed rodents leaped from the wires above to the high tree limbs and worked their way down the tree one peach at a time.
When the entire crop of peaches disappeared, that easy-going squirrels-have-to-eat-too attitude changed. It was the last straw.
Hubby studied the ascent of the squirrels on the bird feeder pole for several days. It’s a thin metal pole which unfortunately is also close to the wires running from the electrical pole to the house.
He researched on Google and discovered a slinky-type contraption that could be wrapped around the pole that was supposed to stop the squirrel invasion.
Of course, the proximity to the wires still provided access, and feeders continued to be emptied within hours of being filled.
Determined now to stop the squirrels from stealing the birds’ food, he moved the pole to the center of the yard far away from any trees, shrubs, or wires. For a few days, the feeders fed the birds. Then the evil little rodents figured out how to shimmy up the slinky!
That was too much.
Determined now to stop them, he applied grease to the pole and the slinky.
So far, the squirrels haven’t mastered the slinky and the slick pole. We can look out and see cardinals and jays and sparrows feasting away again.
Score battle one for the human!
