The Afghanistan conflict wasn’t our longest war. The eternal battle between bird lovers and squirrels is the war that never ends. There can be brief moments of détente, but very brief. If there is bird seed in the area, squirrels will find it or die trying.
Our backyard is a demilitarized zone so far as squirrels are concerned. I feed them (and the birds) on the ground in the way back and they leave my feeders (with baffles) alone. Baffles do the trick – unless squirrels have a Plan B.
We have a front yard feeder which our parakeet, Foster, loves. She watches birds come and go and squawks and squawks trying for a response. So, we keep the front yard feeder mainly for Foster’s entertainment.
All was going well until Nancy moved Foster into the den and away from being able to see the dangling feeder on the front porch, which was somewhat protected from squirrel attacks. We put a baffle on the pole of the repositioned feeder, which worked for about two days. Then Mr. Squirrel figured out that if he climbed up on the azalea bushes, he could get a leaping start and somehow grab hold of the circular glass feeder with two small holes and squeeze in.
Let there be war between us!
I moved the baffles up and down, and the pole from side to side, and the squirrel adjusted. There was simply no way to position the feeder so that Foster could see it and the squirrel would not find access.
I decided on the Nuclear Option. I went to Southern States and bought 5 pounds of “red hot” bird seed. Birds apparently don’t mind, in fact, they enjoy seeds with a little heat.
This time when Mr. Squirrel stuck his head in the seed bowl and got a nose full of red peppers, he went flying in the other direction.
Ah-ha! Don’t screw with me squirrel!
The battle, I fear, is not over. I fully expect to look out one morning and see the squirrel with a discarded Covid face mask as he reenters the bowl with the stash of seeds.
Some wars simply never end.