The pesky squirrel thieving again .....

I slept for a bit longer than usual this morning, even going back to sleep after Woodpeckers had brought me some tea. (It might have something to do with waking early to listen to cricket on the radio). Helena came back up and woke me again to tell to get up as I had to get up to come and look at the newly located bird feeders, which I had hung outside the back door. Helena seemed very amused, and actually knew that I would be too, although probably I'd also be distinctly annoyed.

A pesky squirrel had defeated my plans to provide not only a safe feeding area for the birds, in a place protected from the cats, but also a site where the squirrel wouldn't come to raid them. How stupid I was. Less than a day later and it was eating to its heart's content. Or should I say she, as from my pictures I can see a lot of nipples, which suggest a mother, and the potential of many more squirrels to come, yet again.

We stood inside the dining room looking through the double-glazed sliding doors and knew the squirrel was aware of our presence. It didn't make any difference. Nor did my sliding the door open and then standing just a couple of feet inside the door. while it looked at me as it continued feeding only a few feet on the other side. This picture is the last one I took before we finally shooed it away, feeling like laughing and crying at the same time. I do admire the gall of squirrels but I also regard them as tree rats, and have had many run-ins with them in my life in various locations.

Helena has spent a lot of money trying to buy squirrel-proof bird feeders and we have even had a case of a feeder being knocked to the ground and then disappearing, a result we think of the badgers taking secondary action and dragging the feeder off to destroy it. Will we win? I doubt it, but we shall carry the fight on regardless. We want the birds to be well fed, and we like to see them doing it, so perhaps we can find a compromise solution eventually. The lower feeder enclosed by a cage does protect the food from the squirrel but not all birds can access it. I urgently want to provide a safe place for the injured blue tit, so I must think again , and quite quickly.

If you want to see the whole sequence of the squirrel feeding, I have put some pictures in a Flickr gallery here, with an additional picture from yesterday of the first blue tit to visit the tray.

I have just been to check and there are lots of tits feeding happily and no squirrel, as yet.