First, I thought I'd share some pictures of one of our bushy-tailed bandits raiding a bird feeder recently. I think the squirrels like the feeders almost as much as the birds do.
And here's a picture of the bandit out on the front feeder today (11/14). Cheeky little thing--he let me get within 6 feet of him, and kept an eye on me but had no intention of leaving the goodies!
Second, this was featured on our local weather page this morning and I just had to share it. Viva la Squirrel! ;)
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Isn't this weather horrid? Ye ghods! At least it's supposed to stop raining by Friday. It's weird, even though I tell other people about what the weather is really like up here, still, every year I'm surprised by the wind and the rain and the pineapple expresses and the flooding and the landslides....you'd think I'd be listening to myself a little better, huh? :)
My hawkeye detects a suet feeder (those are their favorites, with the seeds and stuff in them). And I think the other one advertises itself as "squirrel proof". What a larf.
And the video is too funny for words.
WOOF
Your keen eye did indeed spot a suet feeder. I had no idea squirrels would be so fond of suet! They'll do just about anything to get to it. That feeder is right outside the window next to the couch, so I get to watch a lot of Squirrel TV. And the seed feeder behind it is indeed a spinner, but I've got it hung in a place that they can reach it from other branches, so it's definitely not squirrel-proof. :)
I added another pic just now of one of the fuzzy guys out on our front feeder. I see them in this pose all the time and it always cracks me up.
I tracked the video back to YouTube and found more videos by the same guy. Most amusing. :)
SQUIRRELS!
I LOVE SQUIRRELS!
I IRRATIONALLY LOVE SQUIRRELS!
Can I give this a thousand thumbs up?
I keep an air-soft pistol (fires a harmless plastic ball at low speeds, byt the time it goes 10 ft, it's just a touch and yes, I fired it into my hand just to be sure it would do them any damage) for when they get too insistent.
Once they figured the dogs couldn't climb the fence, they and the dogs just sit there and bark at each other.
We used to have on who lost all but about an inch of tail (nicknamed "Stubby" - what else?) come by regularly for years, but I haven't seen him in months. He must have gone to the big bird-feeder in the sky.
The video was wicked funny. The only time our squirrels dance is when the neighborhood cats show up.
Not my favorite nuisance, but I've become more accepting of them raiding the bird feeder in recent years. They're better than the rats in the compost pile, that's for sure.
Umbrella, squirrels love to fisk with domestic critters. Ours bark at our dogs and drive them crazy. Very entertaining for us. :)
Denise, right there with ya, girl. :D I think that is probably the most enthusiastic response I have ever gotten to one of my posts. Thanks!
John, but see, I LOVE the squirrels. I don't use the dried corn on the cob; I found these compressed sweet corn logs: http://tinyurl.com/6glpep. They last a lot longer than regular ears, no waste, and the bushy-tails love love love 'em. :)
Bill, that makes me think of an old western with the bad guy shooting at somebody's feet and saying "Dance, boy!" Dance by terror. Oh, dear. :)
Designanator, watching a squirrel make a flying leap onto a spinner and get flung off is hysterical. I felt so bad for mine that I moved my big spinner so they can sit on a nearby branch and munch. I know, I'm weird. :) Glad you and your family liked the video, I can't stop laughing when I watch it.
Rich, my husband calls them rats with fluffy tails, so he's not real fond either. I just get such a kick out of their antics, and their creative sneaky little brains.
Barry, I got the same reaction from my husband, along with "Some people have too much time on their hands." Well, not everybody can appreciate the finer things in life! :D
Gracielou, deer dancing to Thriller? That I would have to see!
Mary, I'm really surprised y'all don't have squirrels up there! 'Course, we've planting a bunch of trees in the pasture in the past two years, they're all small yet, and I've never seen a squirrel back there, so I guess it makes sense. They want to be high, and they don't want to have to cover too much territory between trees. Ah well, they will come. Fat, lazy squirrels are the best.
MaryTK, yes, but they were creepily adorable, right? Or maybe adorably creepy.... :D
Thanks for sharing. I like squirrels and thought I was one of the only ones that fed them with the birds. DH, has tried in vain to keep them from the feeder, it makes me giggle to watch him try to figure out ways to squirrel proof the feeders. Which of course never works.
I think I mentioned before--I have found these compressed sweet corn squirrel logs that they just go crazy for. It's all edible, so there's no cob left when they're done, and it takes about 2 weeks for our bushy-tails to finish one off. I've also seen birds up there eating on it. I just put a new one up today and there was a squirrel feeding within 5 minutes.
Squirrel-proofing is an exercise in futility (as Jodi noted here, in one of the funniest squirrel stories I've ever read: http://open.salon.com/content.php?cid=19795). I figure it's just added entertainment. We've got a terrible twosome who visit my house-shaped feeder every day: One sits on the roof and shovels seeds onto the ground, where the other one stuffs his cheeks and guards the rest of the seeds for the scooper. Smart little buggers!