Food Fight

This past week I have been sending a message to the squirrels. Sunflower seed consumption shot up like a rocket in early March and I’d seen as many as five squirrels at one time on the feeders. I have now withdrawn all sunflower seed from the feeders except for two caged tubes the squirrels haven’t yet penetrated despite vigorous effort, and I discontinued use of peanut butter and white millet for a time—their Plan B foods. The peanut piece feeder is more problematic. I have treated the product there with cayenne pepper powder and we’ll see if this gets the point across. I used this no-sunflower-for-two-plus-weeks technique last summer and by the end of two weeks the marginal squirrels did move off. I can handle one or two but half a dozen or more is unacceptable around here. So far the birds are not greatly disadvantaged, as the suet is an acceptable alternative for the peanut butter lovers, and most all the birds accept safflower in lieu of sunflower. We shall see if things improve around here by the end of the coming week.