Bird feeder, new visitor

I have not installed my “Twirl-a-squirrel “ out in the garden this year. The cat is holding his turf all by himself.

I am not sure if this was posted here or somewhere else, but it is worth the time to watch.  
It’s on Facebook, you might not be able to watch, I forgot. Anyway for the rest of the crew:

https://www.facebook.com/494774490533323/posts/3328418680502209/

   

Oh, here is his first video on YouTube.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=hFZFjoX2cGg

Cribbs74 wrote:You are gentle soul Bob. I don’t think I would have as much restraint as you do. Weird that he could get a grip on that pole. They do have tremendously sharp toe nails. Maybe you just need to clip them?

Guilty Ron, but it always wasn't so.

When I was 13 or 14, walking back from a morning of hunting pheasant with my Stevens model 11 12 gauge, this one....



I noticed a squirrel gathering nuts on the forest floor probably 40 feet away. Having just bird shot I popped it.  Mom's pretty good at cooking game, and I have spit out many a 7.5.  Walked up and noticed that it was a nursing female, just a couple of pellets hit it, but it was enough.  Hung my head and never shot another.  Still feel badly about it today.  

Had a Fawn and it's mother in the side yard a couple of days ago. Tiny thing on teetering legs, newly born I would think. Also lots of fledged Red Wing Blackbirds too, Mom and Dad stuffing them with insects etc.. Bear hasn't been back, think I scared him.

Loved your video Rene, wish I was half that creative.

Grease the pole with something noxious! My squirrels get thier morning dose of .17 pellets....that is the slow learners anyway. The rest decided the ground was safer!

rsv1cox wrote:

Cribbs74 wrote:You are gentle soul Bob. I don’t think I would have as much restraint as you do. Weird that he could get a grip on that pole. They do have tremendously sharp toe nails. Maybe you just need to clip them?

Guilty Ron, but it always wasn't so.

When I was 13 or 14, walking back from a morning of hunting pheasant with my Stevens model 11 12 gauge, this one....



I noticed a squirrel gathering nuts on the forest floor probably 40 feet away. Having just bird shot I popped it.  Mom's pretty good at cooking game, and I have spit out many a 7.5.  Walked up and noticed that it was a nursing female, just a couple of pellets hit it, but it was enough.  Hung my head and never shot another.  Still feel badly about it today.  

Had a Fawn and it's mother in the side yard a couple of days ago.  Tiny thing on teetering legs, newly born I would think.  Also lots of fledged Red Wing Blackbirds too, Mom and Dad stuffing them with insects etc..  Bear hasn't been back, think I scared him.  

Loved your video Rene, wish I was half that creative.

I’ve done something similar Bob. Here in Oklahoma we have a Holiday Doe season, it’s very short and I assume it’s designed to control the huge population of Deer we have in Oklahoma. It was the last day of the season and I had nothing to bring home when a very large Doe came out of the wood line 100 yards from me. I took my shot and all was well until a much smaller doe stepped out and stood by the fallen one. It didn’t have spots so I am guessing it was a yearling. It wouldn’t leave so I was heartbroken and considered taking another shot as it was perfectly legal to do so. Suddenly a third Doe stepped out and the younger one ran up to it and they both left the field together. I felt a little better about my decision, but I have learned to be a bit more patient and look at the bigger picture. Had I have waited I would have took the last Doe as she was even larger than the first.

Ron

How about a little mineral oil, crisco, or Vaseline on it to keep the critters off?

I don't know if you have a similar product, but we have a garden fertiliser called "Blood & Bone". Any guesses what it is?
Anyhow, as we don't have Squirrels, we sprinkle this product around the plants that we want to protect from rabbits and they won't come near it. Mind you, we don't have bears, so they may actually be attracted by the Blood & Bone.

Why do all the pests need to be so cute?

I quit counting at 20 deer in my back yard a couple of years ago Ron. Almost ran over a fawn with my hedge hog hidden in the tall grass. Not so many now for some reason. In years of hunting in New Hampshire I only saw one. A buck walking right beside me along an old logging road. We never noticed each other. I had borrowed my buddy's model 94 Winchester and by the time I shouldered it he was gone.

While not Schweitzer, in my advancing years I have learned a certain Reverence for life. I have given up hunting all together and have been known to escort a spider or two out of the house. How do you do that, well a tissue and a light touch. Mom said, never kill a spider.

Rod, Australia may not have bears but they do have Koala's. Latest issue of the Smithsonian Magazine has a article "The great Koala rescue operation" details that at least 45,000 or 75% of Koala's perished in the recent fires. Thankfully their diet consists mostly of eucalyptus not the flowers that deer and rabbits love so much, and I don't think they topple bird feeders.

Going to polish that post with something, but first I would like to see how that critter climbs that post then swings up to the feeder.

Yeah, Happy Fathers Day. Some kids coming over today, some heading for the beach.

Nice pictures there, and a cute guest you have. Well, if you can't beat them, might as well build them a set of stairs.....

NEW222 wrote:Nice pictures there, and a cute guest you have. Well, if you can't beat them, might as well build them a set of stairs.....

Cured the Squirrel problem with an upside down bucket, did nothing for the Bear problem.  Downed feeder greeted me again this morning.  Not much effort to putting it back up.  






But, I have a new problem.  These guys have been in my yard for the last several days off and on.



It's ok if they fertilize my lawn..............but my driveway.



Ah, the pleasures of country living.

I searched CEF for "Bird". I found this thread there.. but there are a LOT of good threads in that search! Check some of em' out.

Robert (rsv1cox) has the worst luck with bird feeders.. despite his efforts. Robert.. come back to Rhode Island.. We can train homing pigeons to fly back and forth from Tiverton to N. Smithfield. You prolly knew of someone who raced pigeons.. popular through the 1960's.

This is.. Feed-Station Zebra...

as of 18:00 hours this evening.  The hummingbird feeder was added days earlier. The upper-central bracket and its' suspended feeders were re-orientated today.. to appear less "Woonsocket-like"..   (I lived there..)



This dish..    contains no-salt peanuts; both in-shell and shelled, Black-Oil Sunflower seed, dried Cranberries and dried meal-worms. Since I quit smoking cigarettes.. I've been buying food for our wild-animal friends. I am fascinated by them.



This hummingbird feeder is new. 1st season.. hung outside Lynne's kitchen-window by me.. a week or so ago. Weather was supposed to be cold shortly thereafter. I brought the feeder "in".. but rehung it a little while later. Lynne was looking out the kitchen-window and saw the 1st little birdie feeding. This was Friday late-afternoon April 30th. She saw another "today".. at this same feeder.



A little birdie sighted there by Lynne.. again today.  

I have vids posted on youtube.. of hummingbirds feeding at a feeder in the same location, back when Hurricane "Irene" struck New England. I"ll try to find/post the links.

Having issues logging into YouTube.

I dunno Roddie. I see Bob's bear looking in his window, seeing your photo, and
jumping on a bus to Rhode Island. I'd sleep in the basement for a few days.
Bob

Put my hummer feeder out yesterday...nothing yet.,but they have hit my sisters feeder 30 mi. west of here! It's Minnesota....I wouldn't come back here till July..probably snow again anyway!

dckrsn wrote:I dunno Roddie. I see Bob's bear looking in his window, seeing your photo, and
jumping on a bus to Rhode Island. I'd sleep in the basement for a few days.
Bob

Last time I saw him, he was heading North!

What you folk call Hummingbirds, we call Honeyeaters.  I'm not stealth enough to get one on film, but we've been entertained by a pair for the past couple of weeks, not 10 feet from our front door.

This is not my picture, but you get the idea.


No need for bird feeders around here.  We just plant enough suitable shrubs and the birds come with no further incentive, apart from our birdbath.  The birds seem to have a pecking order (pun intended).  At various times through the day, a dozen different varieties come for a drink or a bath.  It was a terrific investment, although I guess if we had bears they'd probably flatten it going for a drink.  Thankfully we don't have bears, or do we??

Same here Rod, not my picture -can't get one to hold still long enough.



Eastern Bluebird. I never saw one until I got to West Virginia, even in rural New Hampshire. Now the woods here are full of them. Mr. & Mrs. having a little squabble on my barbeque this morning.

You have bears, the cute and cuddly kind. Trade ya.

Hey, that would be New York's state bird.

Bob

rsv1cox wrote:

You have bears, the cute and cuddly kind.  Trade ya.  

Actually, not wanting to sound picky, but the Koala is not a bear and is incorrectly referred to as one.  Not related at all.
I guess with all our weird marsupials it's hard to try to find something to compare them to.
I guess that's what happened when they first discovered the "Duck Billed" Platypus.  

The "bill" is actually soft & leathery, beaver-like tail, egg-laying mammal, venomous, a real mixed up mess.

Them palatypus's are definately a very neat animal. I have never forgotten about them since first learning about them back in elementry school. Always has been, and still is a bucket list to visit Australia. But if and when I do, I will be looking for cage diving with great whites. Another bucket list.

NEW222 wrote:Them palatypus's are definately a very neat animal. I have never forgotten about them since first learning about them back in elementry school. Always has been, and still is a bucket list to visit Australia. But if and when I do, I will be looking for cage diving with great whites. Another bucket list.

You can keep your great whites.  Too many teeth and a bad attitude.  Numbers of attacks also seem to be on the rise.  Just as well you'll be in a cage.  My son surfs so that freaks me out a little.

As for the Platypus, they're getting pretty hard to spot in the wild, but our local Healesville Sanctuary has a really successful breeding program.  Well worth a visit for those who make it out here.

Tragedy during your last fire season Rod.  Millions of animals including Koala's wasted.

Just saw a program about Quolls.  Endearing little creatures as presented by the Aussie narrator.

He befriended a pair, Named them "Clover" and "Buster." 




Seems I remember Steve Erwin being killed by a Ray.

Be careful out there.

dckrsn wrote:Hey, that would be New York's state bird.


Bob

Reminds me of my cousins Bob many years ago visiting our cottage in New Hampshire from the city. In their best NYC accent referring to boyd doit when one got hit by one of New Hampshire's best.

rsv1cox wrote:Tragedy during your last fire season Rod.  Millions of animals including Koala's wasted.

Just saw a program about Qualls.  Endearing little creatures as presented by the Aussie narrator.  Seems I remember Steve Erwin being killed by a Ray.

Be careful out there.  

Quolls, Bilbys, Bandicoots, all cute little critters but mostly endangered.  Not all of our animals are deadly, but quite a few are.  As I mentioned, even the cute Platypus male has venomous spurs on its back legs, but I guess the sharks and Crocodiles are the only creature out here that have the ability to remove large parts of the body.  The largest preditor mammal we have is the Dingo, which is really just a dog, regardless of the "Dingo took my baby" legend.  They make a great pet and are nowhere near as dangerous as, say, a Pit bull.

So, I just stay away from the water, which is where the real nasties hang out (including the Ray that took out Steve Irwin).