Geez, the war never ends. My bird feeders have been pretty safe lately, tho if we get alot of rain, the oil washes off the pole and they can sometimes climb up.

What's happening now is the stooopid critters have decided they like my pansies as a snack. So they'll plop their fat bellies onto the deck railing and leaning over munch to their hearts delight. My pansies were in full bloom and now they're down to stems.

I'm not even sure they're actually eating them. They may well be biting them off out of spite. But then, I'm not seeing any pansy bits on the ground or deck so...guess they're eating em. Little boogers.

We've moved office at work recently. I'm now the proud owner (renter whatever) of a window that opens! Yay!

And there is a tree outside filled with birds. OK, so they're kinda boring birds mostly, but hey....they're birds. So I HAD to put a feeder up right?

Well I found a great little window feeder that attachs via suction cup at Wally World. Seven bucks. So good investment right?

Well... ya know that tree? There are squirrels in there too. Uh huh. Bird feeder thieving squirrels. Not even cute red ones or gorgous blonde ones. Big ass black squirrels. Well, they raid my feed in no time and quickly knocked it down. So I retrieve it and since I'm on 2nd storey, I tie a stretchy name tag cord to the base so it doesn't fall all the way to the ground. Sorta acting like a bungee jumping cord. So that works, but the suction cup really isn't very strong and the feeder falls off regularly.

Well....it just so happens that I bought hubby Sirius satellite radio for Christmas and it came with a car kit and we didn't use the "attach it to the windshield" attachment they give. Which is.....a big ass SERIOUS suction cup.

So I rig that suction cup up to the bird feeder and it works pretty well. But, its not too long and the squirrels manage to knock it off. Well this time the suction cup is so durn heavy that the stress on the base was too much and the feeder broke. So back to WalMart I go and buy another one. This time I attach my stretchy cord to the top of the feeder. Duh. Why didn't I think of that before?

So...for now we're happy.

Baby squirrels are all over right now. They're so fun to watch, chasing each other up and down and round and around the trees. And its now with the baby squirrels where you begin to see those antics with trying to figure out and best the bird feeders again. Better'n TV.

It's been cold, rainy and windy the last few days. Wind was sooo bad and the ground so soggy that the big bird feeder pole fell over. Squirrels were having a field day when I noticed it. Both feeders had spilled a nice pile of seed and it had turned into a feeding frenzy for the squirrels.

Also, I've noticed that they're getting up the other feeder pole pretty easily. It doesn't have a baffle on it, and I'd been oiling it down. Guess oil doesn't work in winter. Anyway, so I went to Canadian Tire yesterday and bought a baffle. Haven't put it up yet. But will have to soon.

At the cottage, I've got a shorter feeder hook that clasps onto the deck rail. A small bird feeder is suspended there that I put sunflower seeds into. I noticed that the little red squirrels and the chipmunks were raiding it regularly, so I oiled down the pole with some light olive oil to make it nice and slippery. We've noticed it works well for many of our other poles and makes it very hard for the squirrels and such to climb. It's simply just too slippery.

Anyway, this particular pole is so short though, that the squirrel can get a running start up the pole and get one little toe onto the feeder before he starts to slide back down. So he dangles there for a bit trying to grab and seed or two before his feet slip away and force him back down. It's quite hilarious really. The poor littled chipmunk can't even make it that far, he just slides back down without being able to grab onto anything with a toe or two. Something tells me though, they'll figure out another trick.

Bill had put the bird feeder in the sunroom for the day. All he'd been seeing on the feeder was blue jays and he was feeling stingy I guess.

It didn't take long for a chipmunk to get into the house. Apparently, he chewed a hole in the dryer vent and got in that way. Anyway, the little bugger had loads of fun running around the whole house stashing sunflower seeds all over.

The first day I found a stash of seeds in the bedroom under the comforter. The next day I found little presents (droppings) in several spots while I was cleaning house.

A few days later we noticed sunflower seedlings in one of the house plants. This morning we had seedlings in several plants.

Bill tried to plug the hole in the dryer vent, but chippie still got in. We seem to keep forgetting to buy a new vent cover when we go the the hardware store, but we'd better get it pretty soon. All we need is chippie setting up household downstairs......

We saw a wolf in the back yard the other evening. Bill and I were sitting on the deck and I looked up and there he was. I whispered "Bill...Bill" not wanting to scare him off as I wanted Bill to see him and to verify that it was what I thought it was.

Bill straightens up "What?". By then the wolf saw us and took off. Bill looked up just in time to see the startled wolf run off.

Yup, it was what I thought it was.

Maybe it's time to change the name of the blog to "Turkey Wars". When we first started getting turkeys in the backyard we thought it was pretty neat. First year all winter we had 3 visiting us. The tom and two hens.

Second year we had 13 and those young ones sure were cute!
Last year we had 25. However, over the winter you enjoy seeing them coming. We would gleefully count heads as they hobble gobbled on by. The tom would fluff himself up and as it got nearer to mating season he'd put on all sorts of displays. It was a sight to see.

But something happens in the summer when you know pickings are easy for them and your yard fills up with turkey doo. Twenty five turkeys can leave alot of doo too. Bill has been complained about stepping into it when he mows.

But what can you do? You set up your back yard to attract wildlife, but you can't choose what animals are allowed. At least that is what I keep telling Bill.

Things HAD been quiet with the squirrels. Hubby throws out the occasional stale bread and they munch away, leaving the feeders and suet basket be.

However, hubby recently made the error of storing the extra suet blocks in the carport. On the floor no less. Like that is saying "here squireley, squirrely".

Needless to say, they heard the call. Within days most of the blocks had been ripped to shreads. Plastic containers with teeth marks all over and hardly a sign of anything yummy left. Just imagine a squirrel licking the plate. Wouldn't that make a great picture?

I suppose if I really wanted to PROVE it was squirrels I could get DNA evidence off the slobber, but I won't. I'm quite sure it was squirrels.