Tuesday, January 5, 2010

Excellent: Snow is piling up and more is on the way

True, I didn’t get my Christmas wish (18 inches of snow in my front yard) but my New Years wish is being slowly cobbled one cm at a time.


["One more cm and I won't be able to see!" "What?": photos GAH]

My clothesline bird feeder carries the weight of the snow well but because all is white the birds are having a hard time finding my feeder from the air. And every time I sprinkle a bit of seed on the ground it gets covered up as total coverage approaches twelve inches.


["Approx. 6 ft. above deck. Squirrel proof?"]

Undisturbed snow on the fence rails reveals that squirrel traffic is down a bit, but, based on food prints under my feeder, one furry creature found my back deck.


["Fewer squirrels; and more snow on its way. Excellent!!"]

Prediction: I’ll soon have 12 inches of snow in my back yard and squirrel traffic will pick once they discover three days’ worth of bird seed under the snow on my deck.

***

Do you own a squirrel proof bird feeder?

Is it actually squirrel proof?

.

2 comments:

Lost Motorcyclist said...

I gave my mother one that uses a counter weighted bar. The birds perch on the bar to peck the food. Too many birds, or too big a bird, and the bar sinks down, lowering a cover over the food. The counter wights are adjustable, so on hers, it is set to drop if even one starling lands on it.

It is so effective, the squirrels were forced to chew through the bucket where she stores her bird seed, and eat directly from there.

G. Harrison said...

Your comment made me laugh. I asked the same question re feeders yesterday at The Roaster, and a woman mentioned the damage done by squirrels to another type of "drop bar" feeder. They are bloody ingenious.

My clothesline model is safe as long as it's 6 - 7 ft. above ground and the support pole for the line is 6 - 7 feet away from the feeder; otherwise, the squirrels do a run, jump and launch from the middle of the pole.

Three squirrels are outside my window now comparing diagrams re how to defeat my pole.

Cheers,

GAH