winter blah beater "Squirrels"

We have a lot of squirrels in our yard and they are always going after the bird feeders, so for Christmas I bought my DH a squirrel feeder. DH mounted it on the railing of our deck which we can see from our kitchen table. It worked as far as them leaving the bird feeders alone and it's a hoot watching them get to their food. Ha ha ha they have to lift the lid to get it, plus we have corn hanging and watching the antics they do to get at that also. So we have birds and squirrels to watch and we don't get angry at the poor little squirrels anymore. LOL (waiting for spring) Anybody else have some squirrel stories?????

We need to get a squirrel feeder back up again, too. They're SO fun to watch. :)

I noticed that the fabric of my summer hummingbird flag was starting to look sun-rotted, but kept forgetting to take it down. Then I noticed it seemed to actually be falling away from the pole (see picture on following post - oops).

Hmmmmmm. My answer came one morning as I looked out the window and saw a wee red squirrel gnawing on the fabric right below the pole. I decided to leave it and see what happened.

Several days later, the flag was laying on the mulch in our island bed, maybe ten feet from the pole. And day or two later, the flag was at about eye-level in the trees on the other side of the red fence.

Guess who! I snuck around the back of the house, slowly walked up to the edge of our driveway, and took pictures from about 35' away. That tiny squirrel labored at his task, dragging the flag though those dense branches. The fabric snagged, and he tugged with all his might. I wonder if squirrels sweat.

His epic struggle:

This message was edited Sunday, Jan 5th 5:22 AM

Whoops, out of order. This is the flag on October 26, when it was still hanging from the flag pole (well, sort of hanging)!

This message was edited Sunday, Jan 5th 5:04 AM

Here's the flag, stuffed in the squirrel's cozy hole. The hole is about 15' up, and the tree stands alone by the street. Boy, I wish we'd been home to see him working on his project!

This message was edited Sunday, Jan 5th 5:01 AM

I heard a story about a cemetery,where someone was stealing all the plastic flowers,baskets and other things.they set up guards at night and couldn't catch who was doing it....till fall
When the leaves fell ,there,up in the trees ,was all the stuff that was missing,some of it quite heavy,they found the culprits ....squirrels

Maybe I should get some squirrel feeders too, the little varmints empty the feeders in no time!
Great story GW...I am truly amazed that they took your flag...right off the pole!! I've never seen or heard such a thing as your story and CC's

Ha ha ha ha that's too funny GW, the tree's nicely decorated though. That would have been something to see crestedchik. Yah it's great fun Floridian to feed them, what I like as you're watching them hide their stash is they think no one's watching. Our neighbour built a Martin bird house and did a wonderful job on it but never got a martin, because it became a "squirrel condo". We could watch them running up the tree with a mouth full of leaves and then jump unto the bird house /squirrel condo and make their nest for the winter.

I couldn't believe it, either. I'd never had a flag come off the pole before or get so tattered so quickly; I couldn't imagine what was doing it! I roared with laughter when I saw that cheeky thing gnawing on the fabric. :D If I put my winter flag out there, I am going to have to spray pepper spray or bitter apple along the top it!

Maybe they wanted a blanket for Christmas and thanks to you they got one! LOL

I've heard some interesting squirrel stories, but this one takes the hummingbird flag! These little critters are amazing little buggers. If we didn't have squirrels to complain about raiding our feeders it would be something else. And it is awful fun to watch them try to get food out of the squirrel feeders. My folks have a whirly-gig apparatus that you hang corn ears from and it spins. As soon as they go for the cob, it spins and the squirrel goes flying off. It was hours of entertainment for us and good exercise for the squirrel!

That's what I want to make - one of those spinning ones!! I figure it wouldn't be too hard to make, and it would pay off in amusement for a looong time. :D

We were at our friends for New Years and they have a basket hanging from a tree with suet in the bottom and all you see is the squirrels head pop up and then a bird they get in it together. ha ha