Feeling Squirrelly

My war with the squirrels continues.  They are determined to eat me out of house and home.  Or at least eat every last bit of black oil sunflower seed they can get their little paws on.

They are really hysterical to watch.  So agile and strong, and always entertaining as you can see from the following sequence of pictures that was shot within about 3 minutes.

 

I just thought this was a great shot.

 I wouldn't mind so much if they were always like this--eating for a minute, and then getting back down in some entertaining way.  But far to often they manage to get their whole body onto the feeder, and then they just sit there and eat and eat and eat.  They can eat an entire feeder full of seeds in one day that way.

The other day I was fed up (I vacillate between fed up and entertained based on how fast the seed is disappearing and how amusing their antics are) and decided I would have to do something about it.  I took the PAM outside and sprayed the pole, from the deck up to the level of the feeder.  A few minutes later I was back inside and happened to look out the window--just in time to see a squirrel slide down my PAM-greased pole as if he was a fireman going to a fire!  I could not believe it, and grabbed a camera hoping to get a repeat performance.  But the two squirrels out there were smart--they did not touch the greased part of the pole again.  Instead they leaped from the deck to the dry part of the pole above the feeder, then tried to figure out how to get from the top of the feeder down to the part with the seed.  They tried over and over again but weren't able to get down to the seed.  But then I saw one of the squirrels fall off of the top of the feeder, and I got an attack of conscience.  I don't want them eating all of the birdseed, but I also don't want them falling 15 feet to the ground below and leaving me with a yard full of little paralyzed squirrels!  I was also a little concerned about any of my beautiful birds getting PAM on their wings, so I wiped it all off. 

In the last few days they've had a new position to get food.  I hope they enjoy it, because one of these days I'm going to figure out a way to keep them out altogether!

(Please notice the hole in the feeder.  This is courtesy of Josh, who was shooting at the squirrel with his bb gun to scare him away.  Not sure how scared the squirrel was, but the feeder has resolved to turn over a new leaf...and Russ says if the kids kill a squirrel they will have to skin it and eat it for dinner.  Yum, yum...)