I've added a Slinky to the pole of our bird feeder after watching one of the athletic little blighters reach the seeds by stretching to its full length and hanging upside down by its feet off a feeder support arm.
Our set up is very similar to that shown in the video, but Mrs H and I won't fall over in astonishment if the squirrel masters it.
7 comments:
Vital experimentation … hope you’ll publish on it.
James - if a squirrel manages to master it I'll probably post on that.
Couldn't you grease the pole? That little squirrel looks and acts too much like Jeremy Hunt for me to want him to succeed.
I had a similar problem some years ago when I hung a coconut under the bird table for bluetits. The local crows sat on the table and by leaning over the edge were able to reach it. The coconuts lasted about 3 minutes.
I read an article saying that to prevent the crows doing this, you should hang the coconut from a bracket or one of those wrought-iron stake thingies that you get in garden centres. Make the string long enough, and they can't reach it by bending over.
Within two hours of installing it, the crows had won. They sat on the bracket, and reached down with their beak to grab the string a couple of inches below the bracket. Haul it in, then grip the slack with a claw. Then haul the next bit in, and grip that. They gather a bundle of string in their claw while the coconut is slowly winched up to their level. Then they grab it, and game over.
Of course, watching them do this was more fun than watching the bluetits.
Some years ago I tried making a bird feeder support out a length of chrome plated 15mm copper pipe (as sold for exposed bathroom use, such as feeding a shower mixer unit). I soon found that wasn't slippery enough to stop the critters, but what DID work was positioning a large plastic food mixing bowl a fair way up, and with the open side facing down. I did this with a couple of 15mm compression fittings, one either side of a hole drilled in the base of the bowl. It didn't stop them climbing up and grabbing the rim, but they couldn't get enough purchase to get up to the feeders. It (hopefully!) goes without saying that this had to be placed in the middle of the lawn, and far enough from any trees, fencing, etc to stop them making a flying leap across...
Sam - I'm not surprised by the string trick, crows are smart. A video of it would probably have gone viral on YouTube. Something I've noticed is that they don't seem keen on coming close to the house where the bird feeder is.
Dave - I like the bowl idea, I'll try it if the squirrel masters the Slinky.
The bowl idea: same as used on ships' hawsers to stop rats getting aboard.
djc - ah yes, I remember seeing pictures of them now.
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