BIRDS AND OTHER WILDLIFE May 4, 2009
In our backyards we like to set up bird feeders and then we keep a little log book of the different species that stop in for a meal. It’s interesting to see the different types that come to the feeders both here and at our place up North. We get some of the same at both places but there are some here that don’t show up near the river and vice versa. I could go into a detailed bird watcher lecture here but I won’t because it would be boring to write and even more boring to read.
If you have bird feeders then of course you also get the other critters that like to eat the food that falls onto the ground. Squirrels and rabbits are the most common. And the stinking squirrels will find ways to get right up on the feeders and pig out on the grain supply. I’m always trying to find ways to keep the squirrel noshing at a minimum. And to the consternation of the neighborhood animal lovers I have even resorted to the “Red Ryder” method when they get a little too aggressive. I may have even put out an eye or two with that method. Squirrels are not my favorite animal. Chipmunks I can tolerate, mainly because of my wife’s affection for them. But their bushy tailed little cousins are too numerous and annoying.
A couple summers ago we had an accidental solution to the proliferation of squirrels in the back yard. We had set up a little plastic swimming pool for our grandson. It was one of those inflate the top rim type and then put the water in to make the thing rise up and get full. It had a filter and required a bit of maintenance, but it wasn’t too bad. We hadn’t had it up too long before I discovered that the squirrels like getting into the pool. Unfortunately for them they couldn’t figure out how to get out. I found the first victim of kiddie pool drowning early one morning floating face down in the clear blue water. I scooped him (or her, I didn’t check) out, drained the pool and gave it a good cleaning and then refilled it. A few days later after the grandson had had a weekend using the pool I went out early on a Monday morning and found two more little gray bodies floating in the water. I repeated the scoop, drain, clean and refill procedure and buried the two bodies in my new little wildlife cemetery. For the next several days I noticed that the bird feed was lasting longer although there were plenty of birds around. It seemed the diminishing squirrel population was working out just fine. The water bill might be higher but the bird food bill would go down. I thought that was a fair trade.
There were no bodies in the little pool for a couple of weeks. Maybe even squirrels had the ability to learn from their mistakes. But then on a Saturday morning, quite early, I went out in the yard and discovered five bodies floating on the water. How all five of the little dummies had managed to drown really puzzled me. You’d think that at least one of them would have climbed on the backs of a couple others and made the leap to safety. But no, there they were, five drowned tree rats. When I reported the delightful disaster to my wife she was appalled. She doesn’t like squirrels all that much but the high level of carnage upset her. She decided that we would get some kind of cover for the pool or, if we couldn’t find one of those, we would float a little life raft in there so the squirrels could save themselves until I noticed them and set them back on dry land. So I scooped out the five bodies, buried them, drained the pool, gave it a thorough cleaning with soap and bleach and then refilled it again.
We didn’t find a cover for the pool so we floated a Styrofoam mini surfboard in the water all the time, as a rescue platform for any animals that might get into the water and have trouble getting out. The summer passed. The bird seed was doing its job and we saw lots of different birds. The trees were much quieter now that eight squirrels were pushing up daisies in the cemetery. We went away for a few days shortly after Labor Day and since it was still quite warm out I hadn’t taken the pool down. When we got back from our trip I went to the pool and was surprised to find two squirrels on the little surfboard. Unfortunately they were both dead, on their backs with their little feet sticking up in the air. They were very, very thin so I figure they must have starved to death. If only they had learned to paddle that surfboard they would have made it to the edge of the pool and been able to jump out and get some chow.
Well, I took that pool down and bagged it up for the trash men. The following summer I got a different type of kid’s pool, the kind with a metal side wall. The squirrels either suffered a population decline or evolved some sense of pool aversion because we didn’t have any drowned critters at all. I had to go back to the other methods of keeping the squirrels out of the bird seed. But they aren’t nearly as effective as that little swimming pool was during the summer of floating tree rats.
By the way, this morning my wife saw a big old Red Tailed Hawk hanging around the bird feeders. There were no squirrels in sight. I’m going to try and figure out a way to keep that big bird coming back. Either that or I’m getting another one of those pools again this summer.
Have a fine day.
In our backyards we like to set up bird feeders and then we keep a little log book of the different species that stop in for a meal. It’s interesting to see the different types that come to the feeders both here and at our place up North. We get some of the same at both places but there are some here that don’t show up near the river and vice versa. I could go into a detailed bird watcher lecture here but I won’t because it would be boring to write and even more boring to read.
If you have bird feeders then of course you also get the other critters that like to eat the food that falls onto the ground. Squirrels and rabbits are the most common. And the stinking squirrels will find ways to get right up on the feeders and pig out on the grain supply. I’m always trying to find ways to keep the squirrel noshing at a minimum. And to the consternation of the neighborhood animal lovers I have even resorted to the “Red Ryder” method when they get a little too aggressive. I may have even put out an eye or two with that method. Squirrels are not my favorite animal. Chipmunks I can tolerate, mainly because of my wife’s affection for them. But their bushy tailed little cousins are too numerous and annoying.
A couple summers ago we had an accidental solution to the proliferation of squirrels in the back yard. We had set up a little plastic swimming pool for our grandson. It was one of those inflate the top rim type and then put the water in to make the thing rise up and get full. It had a filter and required a bit of maintenance, but it wasn’t too bad. We hadn’t had it up too long before I discovered that the squirrels like getting into the pool. Unfortunately for them they couldn’t figure out how to get out. I found the first victim of kiddie pool drowning early one morning floating face down in the clear blue water. I scooped him (or her, I didn’t check) out, drained the pool and gave it a good cleaning and then refilled it. A few days later after the grandson had had a weekend using the pool I went out early on a Monday morning and found two more little gray bodies floating in the water. I repeated the scoop, drain, clean and refill procedure and buried the two bodies in my new little wildlife cemetery. For the next several days I noticed that the bird feed was lasting longer although there were plenty of birds around. It seemed the diminishing squirrel population was working out just fine. The water bill might be higher but the bird food bill would go down. I thought that was a fair trade.
There were no bodies in the little pool for a couple of weeks. Maybe even squirrels had the ability to learn from their mistakes. But then on a Saturday morning, quite early, I went out in the yard and discovered five bodies floating on the water. How all five of the little dummies had managed to drown really puzzled me. You’d think that at least one of them would have climbed on the backs of a couple others and made the leap to safety. But no, there they were, five drowned tree rats. When I reported the delightful disaster to my wife she was appalled. She doesn’t like squirrels all that much but the high level of carnage upset her. She decided that we would get some kind of cover for the pool or, if we couldn’t find one of those, we would float a little life raft in there so the squirrels could save themselves until I noticed them and set them back on dry land. So I scooped out the five bodies, buried them, drained the pool, gave it a thorough cleaning with soap and bleach and then refilled it again.
We didn’t find a cover for the pool so we floated a Styrofoam mini surfboard in the water all the time, as a rescue platform for any animals that might get into the water and have trouble getting out. The summer passed. The bird seed was doing its job and we saw lots of different birds. The trees were much quieter now that eight squirrels were pushing up daisies in the cemetery. We went away for a few days shortly after Labor Day and since it was still quite warm out I hadn’t taken the pool down. When we got back from our trip I went to the pool and was surprised to find two squirrels on the little surfboard. Unfortunately they were both dead, on their backs with their little feet sticking up in the air. They were very, very thin so I figure they must have starved to death. If only they had learned to paddle that surfboard they would have made it to the edge of the pool and been able to jump out and get some chow.
Well, I took that pool down and bagged it up for the trash men. The following summer I got a different type of kid’s pool, the kind with a metal side wall. The squirrels either suffered a population decline or evolved some sense of pool aversion because we didn’t have any drowned critters at all. I had to go back to the other methods of keeping the squirrels out of the bird seed. But they aren’t nearly as effective as that little swimming pool was during the summer of floating tree rats.
By the way, this morning my wife saw a big old Red Tailed Hawk hanging around the bird feeders. There were no squirrels in sight. I’m going to try and figure out a way to keep that big bird coming back. Either that or I’m getting another one of those pools again this summer.
Have a fine day.
2 comments:
Had a little chuckle with that one. :) I'll have to get you to teach Dominic how to write a tall tale.
Not to mention those stinkin' squirrels can chew through wires in your car resulting in $600 in repairs!
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