Me and Elena only moved a year ago into our new place as it has a garden and we decided to buy a bird feeder to attract in some of the lovely birds that frequent Richmond Park, which is just over the wall. In our time here we've seen some lovely ones and a month ago we had a family of Jays and a Great Spotted Woodpecker coming to visit quite regularly.
What we didn't realise when we moved in though was how the cute, furry grey squirrels would stop at nothing to take all the bird food we put out. At first we saw them climb the pole to the feeder and they clean chewed the feeders in half to get to the nuts inside.
We then upgraded the feeders to these "Squirrel-proof" ones with a cage around them. Squirrel-proof my nuts! Next thing you know, the little critters had worked out how to open the lid and were putting their grubby little paws in through the top.
So I decided to grease the pole with Vaseline, which was great. For a while, we watched as the eager squirrels climbed halfway up then slid back down looking forlorn.
But the victory was short lived. After trying it a few times, they figured they could just jump over from an adjoining bush. Damn. Thwarted again.
Then I read that you could put chilli powder in the nuts. As squirrels are mammals and birds aren't, birds are immune to the chilli but squirrels don't like it. I done this once or twice but soon fell out of the habit and before you knew it they had found a way to eat all the nuts again, this time by letting the smaller squirrels put their heads through the wire grid and chew right through the feeder again.
The final straw came when I looked out the window and saw one jump nearly 4 feet from the ground straight to the feeder, totally bypassing the greasy pole, then hanging upside down and chewing through the plastic.
We've not fed the birds for over a month now
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