Since we moved into our new house one of the fascinating features has been the wildlife that wanders into the yard. Our backyard is bordered by a heavily wooded creek, and we have seen everything from squirrels to turkeys wandering through.
The previous residents had thrown cracked corn out on the cement patio for the various animals, but that not only attracted birds and squirrels, a raccoon started coming around on a nightly basis. With 7 lb. dogs, and 3 garbage bins behind the garage, a raccoon is the last critter I wanted frequenting my yard.
We cleaned up the yard – we disposed of over 10 garbage containers full of leaves and still aren’t done! My husband dismantled the rotting wood that was randomly piled everywhere, and we definitely got rid of the corn!
I have only seen the raccoon once since our massive clean-up effort, but I also wasn’t seeing as many cardinals and goldfinches and woodpeckers matriculating in my yard either. I decided to get a bird feeder so we could attract them in a non-raccoon-friendly sort of way.
Turns out, bird feeders are expensive! I ended up ordering this one and this seed that was supposed to attract cardinals. As soon as it arrived, we filled it up and put it up. We chose to hang it on an old clothesline pole because we reasoned that the squirrels wouldn’t be able to get to it.
As soon as we put it up, the squirrels noticed. One, in particular, tried climbing the fence to reach it, climbing on the clothesline pole – even jumping from the fence to try to grab the feeder. After about two hours of his unsuccessful attempts, I looked out to see this:
Which quickly turned into this:
Which turned into this:
We have spent two days running out and scaring the squirrel off of the feeder, and my husband even tightened the cord up so the squirrel couldn’t reach it. The squirrel has graduated to jumping off of the fence and hanging onto the bottom of the feeder, then shaking wildly so the seed falls on the ground. *sigh*
The worst part is after pillaging the seed he ran into the tree and laughed at me, Seriously. Look at the jerk.
The funny thing is, we have spent less time with the tv on, and more time watching the birdfeeder. And more time as a family plotting the demise of the squirrel. Do you have a bird feeder? Maybe you should.
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