this obese tailless squirrel
always gets his nut!
On a cold February day more than two years ago, , I saw a squirrel with a bloody tail limping around the yard. I thought he would die. He lived and transformed me into a squirrel feeder.
I know I’m not the only one in the neighborhood to take pity on him. I’ve seen him crossing the street dragging corn cobs! I feed him peanuts. Sometimes walnuts. All very fattening. . .
Needless to say, other squirrels try to get in on the peanut action. Rumpy tries his best to chase them away. He can’t run as fast as the other squirrels due to a gimpy hind leg. In fact, he sort of waddles; the squirrels who can run always out manouver him.
Still, Rumpy always gets a peanut for himself. See how happy he is?
Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!
We feed all manner of wild critters (Does Backyard Birds want to advertise? %^) — when I am at the bird-feed store I often hear “what can I do about the squirrels? I’m sure I annoy the ladies that run the store, since they have all manner of expensive anti-squirrle stuff, when I say “Learn to like squirrels!.
(we buy a couple of bags of “Bushy Tail Mix” along with the peanuts-in-shell, peanuts, oil sunflower, cracked corn, corn-on-the-cob, ….
If you own cats and want to feed birds and squirrels, you do need some anti squirrel stuff. Otherwise, the squirrels knock all the bird food on the ground and the cats eat the birds.
I don’t feed birds on purpose. They seem to do ok around here anyway.
Google ads is showing a squirrel proof bird feeder. . . (I don’t think they are with the program here. I want to feed rumpy!)
We have hanging feeders around the perimeter of the deck–oil-sunflower, suet, syrup, niger, and a platform attached to one corner (1/2 sheet of plywood edged with base moulding to make a shallow box.
The box gets peanuts-in-shell, peanut fragments, cracked corn, bushytail mix, safflower and millet.
The platform attracts the ground feeding birds, blue jays, cardinals, and some woodpeckers, chickadees, nuthatches, snowbirds, and some mammals like squirrels, raccoons, opossums, voles, mice….
Most recent bird-fall-prey-to-mammal was a bird (sick, I think) sat and let a squirrel grab it.
jays won’t let the cat get close enough to be a problem, most of the time.
Oh, and ask Rumpy what he thinks of hawks.
I’ve seen hawks around here. I’m sure Rumpy does not like them.
You leave out more feed than I do. The current schedule is Rumpy arrives in the morning and displays himself in a tree. The other squirrels are hidden away. Then, when Rumpy sees me head to the window, he dashes down. The other squirrels then notice Rumpy and dash in. Rumpy tries to fend them off. I throw nuts all around, making sure some go to semi-crippled Rumpy.
That’s why he always gets some!
Pecking order sorting can be fun for the by-standers.
When the turkeys are on the platform they pretty much fill it up (6 young almost as big as Mama, and Mama this year).
Most of the other birds flit around in the tree that is just behind the platform, but the Bluejays bounce from branch to branch, landing hard to make trhe branches wave to try and chase the Turkeys off.
Some times a squirrel reaches over the edge to grab a peanut.
Then, depending on who is in town we get Grackles, Bluejays, and Cardinals doing displays with the Chickadees, Nuthatches, and Snowbirds grabbing a bite in between.
Eventually the LBBs swamp the platform and things generally settle down although sometimes a randy Sparrow rooster will stir things up. It just occurs to me–I haven’t seen any Mo0urding Doves for several days.
Larry–
Are these wild turkeys? Or… uhm… future dinner?
Wild Turkeys, although there is evidence that people around here go to war against them every once in a while.
For those who don’t want to feed squirrels, the ultimate solution is the Droll Yankee Flipper feeder. The perch is motorized and spins when a sufficient weight lands on it. It spins fast enough that a squirrel cannot maintain its grip, but slowly enough that it takes some time before the squirrel finally falls off. It’s reported to be quite entertaining to watch as each new generation of squirrels learns its lesson. I think they have a wind up model as well as a battery powered model.
Droll Yankee Flipper Bird Feeder
Squirrel in my chimney
Smoked out Super Bowl Sunday
Jumps flames to safety
Due to the €/$ parity , USA became incredibly cheap and I went for a 3 weeks trip in the South West and came back 10 days ago .
Bryce Canyon , Powel lake , Zion , Yossemite , Grand Canyon , Mammoth lake , Death Valley and all that .
One of the things that impressed me most was when we happened by sheer chance on a village in the middle of nowhere where was taking place some yearly Indian meeting and we stopped and went to look .
The Indians were dancing and singing and we were about the only “strangers” there .
The moment when their voices leave the deep periodical pattern and soar to an unnaturaly steady very high pitch made me have goosebumps .
This tone must have reached the heavens .
The other thing were the squirrels everywhere .
One of them full 10 cm big charged my wife when she wanted to take a picture and tried to bite her .
They are crazy .
Tom,
10 cm big? That’s only 4″. Where did you find such tiny squirrels?
Squirrels around here don’t seem to want to bit anyone. But, it is true that in state parks, they get territorial, particularly near areas where food has been dropped. Unfortunately, this can be the camping grounds.
Rumpy is very cautious of people. I think something bad happened to him. . . (There is a guy who sets traps around here, and maybe Rumpy’s tail got caught? It was injured somehow.)
It was near to the Yosemite park during a walk .
It was sitting on a low branch and I thought that it was a bird in the beginning .
Then I noticed the tail (obviously the length of the tail adding to the 10 cm) and saw a squirel .
My wife came at some 3 m and wanted to take a picture and the crazy tiny thing charged 🙂
Now as she said once to me and our children during a trek in the forest in Martinique that she saw a huge tarentula that scared her by intently fixing her with a hostile intent , we told her that she must have invented it .
Actually I know she didn’t because I happened to be not far when it happened but joined the childrens’ teasing all the same .
So of course now when she talks about the hostile squirrel , I deny everything and say that she must have invented it like she did with Martinique tarantulas .
After all who could imagine a 10 cm big squirell viciously attacking an adult woman 🙂
Tom,
I sympathize with your wife. Those were ferocious western park squirrels. When I lived in Richland, some idiot intentionally imported obnoxious Walla-Walla squirrels known to take down power lines. This horror of the Walla-Walla squirrels who were the bane of the power company in WA state was discussed in the paper.
We have nice Illini squirrels around here. Still… you don’t want to come between food and a hungry squirrel!
Y’all think I’m cute
So, who carez?
It always makes me go nuts