Backyard Antics and #200

Well...he doesn't cause as much of a ruckus anymore but he is quite crafty. Here he is taking the bread that we put out for the birds.

 Not sure where he takes it though ...

 Hey...Birds do take showers! Check out this mourning dove.

It sat as the sprinklers were on and slowly lifted each wing as the water sprayed it's underside!

 These mourning doves wanted to take a bath (on the tray) and shower (the rain!).

 This little house finch was splashing away like crazy!

 Unfortunately not all of Emily's birdies are so cute...

This one was found in the backyard. Sometimes we see sick birds. This sparrow was way past being sick. It was the second bird that we have found that was dead.

On another day, while Matthew was out weeding the front yard, this sharp-shinned hawk swooped right above his head and landed onto the tree.

These geese were lovin' our neighborhood cornfields! They are an awesome sight every time I drive by as I take the girls to school in the mornings.

AND It's my 200th Blog Post!! Can't believe I got to 200 and I thank you, dear readers, who faithfully keep up with all our adventures of life! I appreciate every one of you!

Audience

Check out who was watching me eat lunch the other day?!?!

They're Not So Bad

The squirrels keep coming but they have not been as successful as before. We've put up squirrel-proof feeders and /or super baffles that prohibit the squirrels from getting to the seed.

This is our super-duper cone baffle that is awesome! The squirrels can't hang on to any part of it so it slips off when it tries to grab hold of it.

This dome one isn't wide enough so I double-baffled it and it worked. Unfortunately Emily wanted to use the wider baffle on another feeder so this one was not as protected as it could have been. We eventually moved it to a weaker branch which can't hold the weight of our fat squirrels.

This is our squirrel-proof feeder. The ledge clamps shut once the lever is pressed by the squirrel.

Emily got some cute sunflower feeders which the squirrels just love. It even uses the corn (which is supposed to be the squirrel food) as a stepstool to his sunflowers seeds.

We removed the sunflowers and it finally got the hint that the corn was for him!

This one found the bark butter... it has peanut butter in it.

A new predator.. this is a sharp-shinned hawk. Whenever it comes, all the birds disappear. Although it's pretty cool looking, Emily says it's not good to get hawks frequently in our backyard. They'll figure out it's a good birding backyard thus easy food for them. It depresses her when she has to think that in order to prevent the predators from coming she has to take down her feeders.

So squirrels aren't that bad!

They're Still Bad

A Follow-Up from blog post:  It's At It Again

The PAM on the baffle didn't work. Actually the squirrels chewed through the red plastic perch and opening. Emily threw the broken feeders away before I was able to get a picture of it but you can imagine what it was doing in this picture. So we have moved the feeders to better locations that squirrels can't get at it.

They are so persistent. I've watched them run back and forth on our lattice and up and down the tree to figure out what the best way is to get at the seed. Emily's put wider rimed baffles on the feeders so we'll see how it does with them. Apparently, these have been working. It can't stretch far enough to get a good grip!

One squirrel was trying to get at this lantern feeder but was only able to get a hold of the top lid. He was so frustrated that he shook and spun the feeder around. Seeds fell onto the ground. And he scampered onto the ground to feast on his deceptive actions.

The next time one got hold of the lid and shifted it open. Oh would I have loved a beebee gun at that time!

This is how I found the feeder when I came home from work one day. There was a ton of sunflower seeds on the ground.








Matthew put a baffle on it and a homemade seed catcher and moved it to the center but after a day at work, we came home to see this:

So Emily took everything down and instead she made some ground feeders. One came and it invited a buddy. Those horrible scavengers.

Also, it made itself right at home.. check out who's drinking from Emily's new water cooler (also from Matthew's sister's family).

 Shoot them all I tell you!!

I shouldn't say that. God made all creatures, even squirrels. What they are good for... I don't know.

It's At It Again

Bad Bad Squirrels. We put up a baffle on one of Emily's bird feeders. It's 'supposed' to prevent squirrels from getting to the seed.

Apparently it is not as effective as it states on the package, as you can see here.

I am baffled by the fact we cannot get rid of these crazy hungry squirrels!! What to do what to do..

So I yelled out the kitchen window to scare it away. It just ran up the tree. I went out and sprayed PAM all over the baffle so hopefully when it's on it, it'll slip off and also get some oily residue on it's fur.

It hasn't gotten on it again.. maybe it worked.