I like squirrels as much as anybody…or, maybe I don’t. I think they’re cute, entertaining, energetic, and fun to watch. However, I’ve also found them to be destructive and pretty much gluttons. They are not given to sharing. Which brings me to the subject at hand.
At least six squirrels inhabit my back yard and when I fill the bird feeders with sunflower seeds, their antennae goes up and they scurry to the feast. Which is all right. The only thing is, they eat ALL of the seeds and the birds, for whom it was originally intended, are without. Believe me, it doesn’t take long for six squirrels to consume a whole bag of seeds.
Birds need feed during cold winter months when their food supply is hard to find in the wild. Song birds are disappearing at an alarming rate. I felt I had to do something about those pesky squirrels, so I bought a squirrel baffle.
The baffle came out of the box as a circular piece of bendable metal which I hooked together to make a cone. That was easy. Nuts, bolts, washers came with it. So did instructions, printed so small that only a leprechaun could read them. I grabbed my glasses.
The directions said to insert hook through hole in top, hold onto it and place a washer and bolt over it. I tried, but it didn’t look right. I took the baffle apart, re-read miniscule directions and tried again. After the third try, it was together. Success! Next, I took it to the back yard and one of the bird feeders. In no time, that cone sat over the feeder, looking quite nice. I poured more sunflower seeds into the feeder.
The squirrels who, I’m sure, had been watching the procedure, immediately came running. I’ll give them an E for effort. They looked at the feeder. They started up the tree, then doubled back. They tried jumping onto the limb from the playground set. Nothing worked. Yay! Baffled squirrels.
So far, the baffle is working. Our weather forecast is for maybe wintry weather…dangerous storms tomorrow night turning to wintry weather on Saturday. So, maybe, just maybe the birds will get through this with food in their tummies. I’ll put more seeds out in a different feeder for the hungry squirrels. Success! (I hope.)
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