Subject: [Tweeters] re: bird feeders pro and con
Date: Aug 10 23:43:17 2014
From: Rob Conway - robin_birder at hotmail.com


I've used many techniques to protect my birdfeeders from mammal invaders. I used to live in Preston where we had many, many bears (they would knock over 30' apple trees to get fruit) and I also observed, deer, coyotes, raccoons, Dougles, Gray and Northern Flying Squirrels, Norway and Bushy Tailed rats, opossums, and even mice on, in, and under the feeders. The stretched rope (I used heavy wire with a handle on the end) with barriers like coffee cans or milk jugs works well, but can be even more effective by stringing 6-9" pieces of 1-3" PVC pipe along the wire making it virtually impossible for small critters to walk on. I suspended seed, suet, and fruit feeders from the wire, using the PVC pipe as spacers. You will still get animals, particularly rodents, under the feeders picking up spilled seed, but you won't lose whole feeders to larger animals like bear, deer or coyotes.
Rob

Rob Conway
Camas, WA
45.58?N 122.44?W - elevation 310 ft.
robin_birder at hotmail.com





Date: Sat, 9 Aug 2014 12:17:11 -0700
Subject: Re: [Tweeters] re: bird feeders pro and con
From: d_hudson at outlook.com
To: tweeters at u.washington.edu










Doug H via my Kindle



Dianna Moore <dlmoor2 at coastaccess.com> wrote:




More on the rope between trees suspending the feeders high off the ground:



My parents did just that with a pulley for lowering the rope/feeders to the ground to refill, only to run into the (Eastern Gray) squirrels doing a tightrope run to the dangling feeders (are you reading this Jeff?)...which also included a couple of suet
feeders...and so began the saga of trying to outsmart the squirrels. This was a period of both frustration and hilarious entertainment as the humans vs squirrels drama played outside the dining-room window, with the rope often winding up until it reached a
tipping point then flinging the hapless animal off into space 20 or 30 feet.



I believe the final solution was two end-to-end 3lb coffee cans on each end of the feeder area, with the plastic caps on the ends, a hole big enough for the rope to pass through allowing the cans to rotate independently, and dumping the squirrel if it
landed on one, also two cans were too big to jump over.



My parents were kind of sad it ended as it provided them with a lot of good laughs. But the birds were the real winners.



Dianna Moore
Ocean Shores











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