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By Brooks A. Mick, M.D.
June 5, 2006 My wife likes to watch wild birds, so she talked me into hanging up several bird feeders in a tree near the back porch. She bought a pair of binoculars and happily watches the house finches and bluejays and downy woodpeckers and other sorts who come around regularly. We live on the edge of an official bird sanctuary, so there are many varieties to observe. Along with the birds have come the squirrels. Squirrels are fun to watch, too. The fluffy-tailed tree rats are acrobatic in their climbing and leaping. Once they discover a bird feeder, however, the expensive feed doesn't last long. I tried putting out a hanging block of corn, supposedly designed to entice the squirrels away from the bird feed. The squirrels simply ate the corn and then went back to the suet feeders. I installed squirrel baffles, hoods which fit over the bird feeders, and these indeed baffled the squirrels--for a few days. Then they learned to leap over to the feeder from another branch. I hung the feeder far out on the branch so no other limb was close enough for leaping. Unfortunately, this put the feeder close enough to the house that the squirrels just ran up the brick and leaped over to the feeder. So I carefully calibrated the equidistant position and that placement foiled the squirrels for a few more days. Then one very acrobatic and bright squirrel climbed down the rod supporting the feeder, hooked his little squirrel toes around the hook supporting the squirrel barrel, stretched himself out on top of the baffle and leaned over the edge, and as the baffle tilted he grabbed the feeder and somersaulted over the edge of the baffle and wrapped himself around the feeder below. There he happily munched peanut pellets, but after he had eaten his fill, he discovered he couldn't climb back up around the baffle and he didn't want to leap down to the deck. In his frustration, he chewed through the plastic hook, and squirrel and feeder both fell to the deck with two thuds. I've rebuilt the hook with epoxy putty, wrapped it in steel wire, and screwed the baffle onto the support so that it won't tilt. I suspect the squirrels will be frustrated for a few days at least. I may be frustrated and baffled for much longer. The solution to the squirrel problem is really simple: stop hanging up enticing bird feeders full of peanut pellets, suet, seeds, and other goodies. But my wife wants to hang out the goodies on the tree. Thus we are much like congress: The House wants to shut down the border while the Senate hangs out goodies on the Liberty Tree (amnesty, jobs, Social Security benefits, the possibility fo citizenship, etc). The senators are pretending that they are not passing provisions to the law which would seduce more squirrels--I mean Mexicans--to cross the border, but just read the bill itself. The House, for its part, is all for putting up more squirrel baffles--I mean fences and guards--on the border, but they are not doing much to reduce the goodies on this side of the border which are enticing the Mexicans to cross. That in itself, building fences on the border, like hanging squirrel baffles, is not going to be the final answer to the problem. Meanwhile, I am watching the squirrels to see what they will do next. And watching congress to see what it's going to do. ------------ About the author Brooks A. Mick: Physician, still practicing medicine but retired from the US Army. Write just for the fun of it, but working on novel in the vein of Tom Clancy's politico-military genre. Email: brooks15@cox.net Comment on this article here! ------------ All articles are EXCLUSIVE to Useless-Knowledge.com and are not allowed to be posted on other websites. ARTICLE THIEVES WILL BE PROSECUTED! |
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