Squirrel Invasion of Bird Station

faceman

First time posting in this forum, hope my question isn't too obvious!

I have a bird station set up in my garden. I went with one of the pole type bird stations. I've discovered that its attracting squirrels though, and grey squirrels at that. This morning I counted 5 in my garden. I thought the pole would be too skinny for them to climb but its proven no obstacle. I also saw a bird and a squirrel get in a scuffle this morning too.

I was considering smearing vaseline on the base of the pole but I dont want to do anything that would be hazardous to any animals.

Any advise on what I should do?

Alun

Depending on what feeders you have you can get feeder cages that keep squirrels and larger birds off the feeders themselves.

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

Greasing the pole is only going to be messy for all concerned. Get a cage for the feeders.

faceman

Thanks for the replies. The feeders are actually in cages but the squirrels are scrapping food out of it.

Eddie B

You could always take care of them, the All Pacino way!:D

Birdnuts

Eddie B wrote: »

You could always take care of them, the All Pacino way!:D

When it comes to Grey squirrels I would be of a similar mind;)

OpenYourEyes

Eddie B wrote: »

You could always take care of them, the All Pacino way!:D

They said they had 5 in their garden this morning - that indicates they're somewhere with at least a relatively high population density, as opposed to being on the edge of their range. So with that in mind, unless they want to be shooting grey squirrels in their garden regularly every year, it seems highly unlikely that shooting them will be of any practical benefit to them whatsoever. Given that they are feeding garden birds, and came to the Nature & Birdwatching forum rather than the Hunting or Shooting forums I would guess that they are not eager to go down the route of either getting a gun and firearms license, or getting in someone to shoot or trap the squirrels on a regular basis.

I realise your smiley indicates you were likely saying that in jest and were aware that it wasnt a practical solution, but its worth me critically evaluating it for the benefit of other readers.


(and for the record I'm perfectly on board with grey squirrel control where its likely to see a benefit, but that doesnt mean that taking out a few greys in the middle of their range is going to achieve anything!)

dodderangler

Air rifle is only way
Lad on field sports channel on YouTube had same problem and got em with the air rifle

OpenYourEyes

dodderangler wrote: »

Air rifle is only way
Lad on field sports channel on YouTube had same problem and got em with the air rifle

As I said above, in an area of high density like that you're having little or no impact on numbers by taking out the odd squirrel that comes into your garden. And the OP seems unlikely to want to go down that route anyway, they seem to be looking for more practical ideas to minimise the conflict between their garden birds and squirrels.



OP, maybe have the feeder on the end of a long piece of string, which is attached to bamboo stick that's at an angle either sticking from the ground or out of a tree etc. Picture it like a fishing rod, fishing line and a bait on the end. If you have the feeder high up enough off the ground the squirrels couldn't jump to it, and similarly with the long piece of string they couldn't climb down that either. Bamboo stick would be hard to climb along too. I think whatever you do has to prevent the squirrels accessing the feeder in the first place, rather than preventing them get at the food once they've reached the feeder.

Eddie B

Eddie B wrote: »

You could always take care of them, the All Pacino way!:D

OpenYourEyes wrote: »

They said they had 5 in their garden this morning - that indicates they're somewhere with at least a relatively high population density, as opposed to being on the edge of their range. So with that in mind, unless they want to be shooting grey squirrels in their garden regularly every year, it seems highly unlikely that shooting them will be of any practical benefit to them whatsoever. Given that they are feeding garden birds, and came to the Nature & Birdwatching forum rather than the Hunting or Shooting forums I would guess that they are not eager to go down the route of either getting a gun and firearms license, or getting in someone to shoot or trap the squirrels on a regular basis.

I realise your smiley indicates you were likely saying that in jest and were aware that it wasnt a practical solution, but its worth me critically evaluating it for the benefit of other readers.


(and for the record I'm perfectly on board with grey squirrel control where its likely to see a benefit, but that doesnt mean that taking out a few greys in the middle of their range is going to achieve anything!)

Yea wasn't being serious, even though I do hunt and trap myself! As you say, the OP probably wouldn't be OK with such an option, and a lot of other people on here for that matter!

Hope I haven't created a monster!:o

Squidvicious

faceman wrote: »

Thanks for the replies. The feeders are actually in cages but the squirrels are scrapping food out of it.

I've had many's the battle with Mr.Squirrel since he arrived at my home in South Kilkenny 7/8 years ago!

If he's still scraping food out of the caged feeders, you just haven't got the right feeders. It's not easy to find really squirrel proof feeders. I've bought a few over the years which the squirrels have managed to wreck. One looked good, but the were plastic parts which the squirrels managed to gnaw and render it useless. I've got a couple now which do the trick. However, a caged feeder does deter some birds, even small ones. It's fine for the peanuts. It's generally the tits which go for the peanuts and the cage doesn't seem to bother them at all. However, my caged seed feeder seems to be less popular than an open one for the seed-eating birds - mainly finches at my table.

The real difficulty for me is ground feeding. Some birds will generally only eat from the ground or a table. While Open Your Eyes suggestion seems good, I think that without ground feeding, you will limit the numbers of birds visiting. The problem is that that's exactly what Mr. Squirrel likes! My worst ever morning was during last May when I counted 9 squirrels feeding!

As for putting Vaseline/grease on the pole, I'm not sure how feasible this is. It didn't work for me. Perhaps I didn't put enough on, but if this is the case, you'd need to use an entire tub for it to work and keep topping up. Chilli powder in the food is also supposed to deter squirrels - didn't work for me.

The odd thing is that since last May/June, they've gone away. I've seen one or two in the trees nearby but none had come to my bird table and I cannot understand why. While they might have found alternative food sources in late Summer/early Autumn, I cannot understand why they haven't returned.

Squidvicious

faceman wrote: »

Thanks for the replies. The feeders are actually in cages but the squirrels are scrapping food out of it.

I've had many's the battle with Mr.Squirrel since he arrived at my home in South Kilkenny 7/8 years ago!

If he's still scraping food out of the caged feeders, you just haven't got the right feeders. It's not easy to find really squirrel proof feeders. I've bought a few over the years which the squirrels have managed to wreck. One looked good, but the were plastic parts which the squirrels managed to gnaw and render it useless. I've got a couple now which do the trick. However, a caged feeder does deter some birds, even small ones. It's fine for the peanuts. It's generally the tits which go for the peanuts and the cage doesn't seem to bother them at all. However, my caged seed feeder seems to be less popular than an open one for the seed-eating birds - mainly finches at my table.

The real difficulty for me is ground feeding. Some birds will generally only eat from the ground or a table. While Open Your Eyes suggestion seems good, I think that without ground feeding, you will limit the numbers of birds visiting. The problem is that that's exactly what Mr. Squirrel likes! My worst ever morning was during last May when I counted 9 squirrels feeding!

As for putting Vaseline/grease on the pole, I'm not sure how feasible this is. It didn't work for me. Perhaps I didn't put enough on, but if this is the case, you'd need to use an entire tub for it to work and keep topping up. Chilli powder in the food is also supposed to deter squirrels - didn't work for me.

The odd thing is that since last May/June, they've gone away. I've seen one or two in the trees nearby but none had come to my bird table and I cannot understand why. While they might have found alternative food sources in late Summer/early Autumn, I cannot understand why they haven't returned.

As a matter of interest, where are you based?

Alun

Squidvicious wrote: »

The real difficulty for me is ground feeding. Some birds will generally only eat from the ground or a table. While Open Your Eyes suggestion seems good, I think that without ground feeding, you will limit the numbers of birds visiting.

I have a ground feeder with a cage that fits over the top of it.

OpenYourEyes

Squidvicious wrote: »

While Open Your Eyes suggestion seems good, I think that without ground feeding, you will limit the numbers of birds visiting. The problem is that that's exactly what Mr. Squirrel likes!

I don't ground feed specifically, but with a lot of birdfeeders you'll have a certain amount falling out and ending up on the ground anyway - particularly when the feeder is full of mixed seed. So you'll have food on the ground anyway for ground-feeders, but it probably won't be as much as if you were specifically putting food on the ground - but as you say the squirrels like that, so it's probably a good thing that there'd only be a limited amount of it! Striking the right balance between providing food for the birds but not leaving too much there to attract/keep squirrels in the garden all day.

Ave Sodalis

Have you thought about one of these OP?

In all seriousness, my grandfather had a similar problem. He made a large plate to go around the middle of the pole so the squirrels couldn't climb up past it. He made it out of wood but put a metal sheet at the bottom of it so they couldn't grip onto it

Squidvicious

OpenYourEyes wrote: »

Striking the right balance between providing food for the birds but not leaving too much there to attract/keep squirrels in the garden all day.

Indeed - that may have been my downfall with the squirrels! Can't figure out what's happened to them recently, though.