(Not only that, but hopefully by the time this gets published, I'll have figured out how to include photos!!!)
My love of bird-watching began at the window, watching them
at the feeders my dad would have up. As
important as attracting birds to these feeders, was preventing squirrels from
getting to the birdseed. Usually a good
baffle was enough, although we also flirted with the one that would close if
something too heavy landed on it.
I didn’t think much about feeding the birds myself, as
I travel a lot, but one day in the grocery store I saw a seed bell. (Seeds stuck together, presumably with something that’s ok
for them to eat, then molded into the shape of a bell.) I was delighted by it, brought it home and
hung it from a shepherd’s crook in the garden.
With no plant hanging from the crook for the winter, it seemed like a
perfect fit.
A while later, I looked out the window to see a squirrel
sitting on the crook, eating the bell. He’d just pulled it up by the string I
used to hang it and he was having a blast!!!
I charged outdoors, scaring him away, and then remembered Dad's baffle. I retrieved it from where I knew I had it in the shed, hung that from
the crook, used wire instead of string to attach the bell and I was extremely
proud of myself. Ha! That would show
that stupid squirrel!!!
A while later, my nemesis was halfway up the shepherd’s
crook, leaning out and eating the seed bell!!
AUGH! I ran outside, scaring him
again, and remembered that using vegetable oil wouldn’t allow them to climb the
thin metal crook. This provided a great
deal of amusement, and my mom and I watched the squirrel try over and over to
climb the pole, only to get a little way and slide back down. Alas, this would eventually wear off and he’d
be back up there, eating the seed I’d bought for the birds. (Mind you, the squirrels weren’t going hungry…I’d
already resigned myself to the fact that they’d eat most of the suet I put out
and was buying the “peanut delight” variety that they seemed to like the most!)
I was determined to figure this out, though, and just knew I
needed something to prevent them from climbing the pole…like a lower baffle. Yeah, a lower baffle… I headed off to our local garden department
and looked and looked, and finally found a clear shallow dish that was meant to
go under a big potted plant to keep water from getting on the floor. It was round, had sides that curved up (or
down!) and it felt like I could put a hole in it. Back home with it, I successfully did put a
hole in it, and managed to maneuver it down onto the pole, where it slid to the
ground like the squirrel had been doing.
Only momentarily defeated, I ran to the house to get some clear packing
tape, which I wrapped around the pole under where I wanted the baffle to sit,
so it wouldn’t slide down. (I was
picking all clear stuff so that it would look subtle and
natural!)
Then I waited. The squirrel
came for his late afternoon snack, began to climb the pole and reached the baffle. He looked around, confused—“Hey!
I could climb this before!” He couldn’t reach around and get on top—it wouldn’t
hold him!! Yay! He went to a nearby bush
and tried to jump, but I’d successfully gotten it too far away! I stood there in disbelief that I’d actually
out-witted a squirrel, quite, quite pleased with myself!! I’ll add that, with one exception of one
incident after a very bad storm which made the baffle tilt so much that the
squirrel could scramble on top (fixed by more packing tape), no squirrel has
gotten to any other seed bell that I’ve hung here. They can have the suet, but this is for my
birdie friends!!!
