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This past year Connie and I put up another bird feeder, one of those little pagoda-types which sits on top of a pole. We filled it with black sunflower seeds and found that-sure enough, just like the Audubon literature told us-the birds like it much better than the cheap "Audubon" brand wild bird seed (mostly cheap millet) sold at the discount stores. Instead of only English sparrows and juncoes, we have daily visits from juncoes, chickadees, nuthatches and house finches. However, the squirrels also like it much more. We're willing to have the squirrels share but they hog the sunflower seeds. A squirrel can easily shinny up the broomstick handle we used and just bury its nose in the trough, and pig out. Then the next one would come. We went to the hardware store and bought a 4' length of copper pipe, thinking it was too smooth for the squirrels. Wrong! They worked harder, but still got up. My mother-in-law, Elba, came up with the solution. "Put some Crisco on it!" she said. BINGO! It works as slick as... well, it works! Now the squirrels forage on the ground for whatever the birds spill out. I think we have achieved balance. By David Wagner |
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Page last modified: 08 May 1998 Location: http://biology.uoregon.edu/enhs/archive/jan98/jan98.html E-mail the WebSpinner: aloysius@gladstone.uoregon.edu |