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Enthusiastic watchers of backyard birds can see the benefit of bird feeders as a fundamental element of the garden landscape.. So now when there is bird feed there will be squirrels; whether you want them or not. When you want success at feeding wild birds, you will have to look into using a squirrel proof bird feeder , or two. Listed below are a number of squirrel facts to have a look at.

Squirrels are agile, bold and persistent. They are rodents; thus their teeth never stop growing and adults demand up to a couple of pounds of food per week. They are adept at climbing up a wide range of materials, such as bricks. The trickier the access to feed, the more they transform into super squirrels – seriously ingenious acrobats. They are seldom outwitted, but they can be deterred and diverted.

Look at the best feeder styles and optimal position in your garden – at all times considering that squirrels could certainly leap as much as 10 feet over a gap, jump as high as five feet off the ground and are capable of dropping 11 feet from a height!

Feeders may either be suspended or pole-mounted. You could choose to suspend them from an isolated branch of a deciduous tree (which has less dense leaf-cover than pine) or you could consider hanging them from a wire between two trees (however doing this makes refilling quite challenging). Make certain to hang your feeder from a metal chain or wire and hook, otherwise the squirrels may chew through the cord to make the feeder drop to the ground.

A very good squirrel guard is a squirrel baffle . Constructed from either heavy plastic or metal, the baffle makes an umbrella over the top of both suspended and pole-mounted bird feeders. The squirrels simply slide off them. Baffles may also be placed about four feet above the ground beneath pole-mounted feeders – greasing the pole with Vaseline will also be helpful.

Caged bird feeders are a very good choice since they permit small backyard birds access to the feed, whilst keeping out squirrels and bigger birds also.

You may always pick more high tech squirrel proof bird feeders. They are activated by weight. Whenever a squirrel lands on one, a spring mechanism causes a metal screen to come down around the feeder or the feeder’s perches give way. Another type of feeder, which is also incredibly humorous to observe, has a battery-driven motor that rotates the squirrel (safely) off it.

Squirrels consume a broad assortment of foods, but another option to keep them away is to give the birds safflower seed, thistle seed (niger), and /or pure suet (without seed), since squirrels are simply not particularly fond of them.

Certainly, you could look at this problem from a totally different perspective and have some squirrel feeders – complete with trapeze, tightrope and springboard. You can easily offer squirrels their favorite foods in return for them staging a superb circus performance for you. Hence when they are distracted, the birds can have a meal also – everybody comes out on top.

Let’s be honest, squirrels will certainly always be a part of backyard gardens, and with proper setting up of bird feeder types, location and types of bird food, we can guarantee not only that your backyard birds get their fair share but also that we are kept amused by hilarious squirrel behavior.

This entry was posted on Sunday, September 26th, 2010 at 4:21 am and is filed under Home and Garden. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.