A railing review

[squirrelitude]

I set up the suet feeder a few weeks back with a brick of hot pepper suet, and the squirrel-resistant seed feeder a few days ago with a seed mix laced with cayenne. This is the approach I took last winter that seemed to keep the squirrels at bay. And yes, I've seen only woodpeckers, house sparrows (oh well), and cardinals partaking so far.

This morning I went over to the back door and looked out, and there on the railing sat one of the fattest, fluffiest squirrels I've ever seen. It was sitting up, looking straight at me. It looked up at the suet feeder. It looked back at me. It distinctly said "Churt." Looked back at the feeder. Back at me. And then slowly walked down the railing and off the porch.

I think it was trying to tell me that there was something wrong with the food, and possibly that it was going to leave a 1-star review on Yelp. No kidding, squirrel. Tell all your buddies.

(I do want to set up the corn-on-a-rope squirrel feeder I had last year, but unfortunately there's now a car parked there.)

Comments

[chamaenerion]

My mother and I tried that in Pennsylvania! But the pepper gave me asthma, and the squirrels ate it right up anyway. We decided some squirrels just like spicy food.

For whatever reason I expected the article to be about you going to a marsh to look for rails. I'm not sure how my brain went there first.

[squirrelitude]

I'm hoping that the suet and seeds are spicy enough that the squirrels can't build up a gradual tolerance, and give up right away. We'll see. (In any case, it turns out that a flock of sparrows can take apart a suet block in a week or so. But at least they don't chew up the cage while they're at it.)

Elusiveat found my title confusing as well, parsing it similarly to you. I suppose one could also read it as that the squirrel was ranting and railing at me. :-)

(I'm going to make a small edit to make it more clear up front that the squirrel was on the railing, so that people don't have their hopes up for moorhens for too long.)

[chamaenerion]

Have you tried using fishing line to deter house sparrows off your feeder?

We haven't had any really cold, snowy weather yet, but so far it seems to be working here in Cambridge. They fly up, hover, and nope out. It took a few iterations to get the fishing line in the right places, though.

We've gotten chickadees, nuthatches, titmice, cardinals, house finches, and goldfinches, at least, so it really does seem to be a fairly species-specific deterrent.

I'd assume there are ways to apply that technique to a suet feeder.

[squirrelitude]

Oh wow, I had never heard of this, or even considered that this could be possible. Reading up on deterrants, it looks like my best bet is a halo with weighted wires for the tube-style seed feeder, and maybe some port wires. For the suet feeder, it sounds like I should block feeding from the side, so that woodpeckers and such can still feed from the bottom but sparrows are excluded.

[chamaenerion]

I've read mixed things about weighted wires in terms of entanglement risk. There doesn't seem to be any non-anecdotal evidence one way or the other, as far as I can tell.

So far I have only used loose ones that are no longer than 8" or so — like giving the feeder a lot of whiskers.

I could try to photograph it the next time I bring it in for filling, but today I can't seem to get a photo where the fishing line is usefully visible in outdoor lighting.

[elusiveat]

This is rather difficult for me to visualize, so I, at least would appreciate a photo.

[siderea]

It distinctly said "Churt."

Hello, my new favorite swear word!