I Declare a Squirrel War!

As I’ve posted before, my daughters and I have been enjoying watching beautiful goldfinches feed from a birdfeeder we’ve added to the backyard. My kids like watching the birds so much, that my husband has  purchased a set of binoculars for each daughter.

A goldfinch enjoying the thistle sock feeder that the squirrels eventually destroyed in my home's backyard.

I first bought a simple net feeder and filled it with thistle seed for the finches, and soon had plenty of finches in the backyard. But within about a week, the squirrels discovered the net feeder, chewed holes in it, and emptied out the seed. Darn rodents! I vowed to keep the squirrels away from my birdfeeder.

So, I purchased a plastic tube feeder from my local grocery store (for about $14), and the finches returned. But however, only about two days after hanging the feeder, I discovered the feeder half empty with a gigantic hole chewed into the plastic tube feeder. I was thrwarted by the squirrels again! I promised myself that despite this obstacle, I would find a way to keep the squirrels out of the birdfeeder.

So now, it’s war! I will not quit on my desire to attract the beautiful finches to my backyard, especially since watching the finches has become an activity that my daughters and I share together. And I will find a way to prevent the squirrels from destroying my birdfeeders and eating up all the bird seed.

So, it is with interest that I came across the below video from the “Bird Man.” In the video, he describes several ways of keeping the squirrels away, from buying special cage-enclosed feeders, to hanging the feeders from special hooks, to installing baffles to the feeders and to the pole on which the feeder is mounted. Needless to say, I will be trying at least one of these methods. I will have to let you know how it works!