Okay, so I have hit the next noteworthy stage in the evolution of my
relationship with the squirrels raiding the bird feeder. I described how I had
to over-tighten two nuts to keep the squirrels from taking the feeder apart, but
the other day I found it dismantled once again, as there was a third nut on the
bottom I overlooked. This time I couldn't even find all the parts to put it back
together, and I wouldn't put it past the little geniuses to have deliberately
hidden them. The new stage this triggered is that this finally made me mad, the
anger replacing my previous detached sort of bemusement at the whole
situation. This lead me to the store in search of a more worthy feeder, and yes,
I believe acquisition of a second feeder is probably another key milestone for
the newbie bird-feeder. Anyway, I found a spring-powered one that works as
described in a couple of forum posts: by closing off the feeding holes under the
heavier weight of a squirrel. So far it's been very effective, the squirrels
don't seem to have figured out yet how to thwart it. I took amusement in
noticing the wire it hangs from was twisted around a few times... obviously they
took a crack at their proven unscrewing method, but that's not how this one
comes apart, and they seem to have given up even trying for the time being. It's
too early to declare victory in the squirrel war, but I think I may have won a
battle.
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