Shoot the squirrel?
Jun 30th, 2008 by Birdy Trish
I want to feed birds not squirrels.
At one point I had a problem with a grey squirrel managing to get at all the bird food I put out. It seemed to take over the bird feeding area. I can sympathise with this comment I received, but don’t know if I could do it myself.
I too have trouble with Grey Squirrels.
The answer is to shoot them.
I no longer have the pests, and now have lots of birds visiting the bird tables.
Shoot the squirrel? Is that the answer. Would it leave a void for the red squirrel to return.
For some reason my squirrel has disappeared without trace so I don’t have a squirrel problem any more, but if I had I know it would put me off putting bird food out.
What do you think? Leave a comment below. Should we shoot one species (the grey squirrel) to help another species (garden birds).
Yes - if you think we should shoot a squirrel.
No - if you think we should not shoot the grey squirrel.
Absolutely not
Squirrels and birds can live in perfect harmony together. I have a tiny garden, but even in this little patch of land, there are designated areas for different types of birds.
I have a ‘hand made’ bird table (essentially an old busted stone bird bath with a paving slab on top of it), where I stick a handful of bird seed mix twice per day - this is eaten by a breeding pair of woodpigeons -this is their area.
I put two great big handfuls of bird seed and sunflower seeds on the ground - this is eaten mainly by squirrels, but also by ground feeders like robins, dunnocks
On a pole I have two feeders, one with sunflower seeds, one with peanuts. This is shared between the squirrels and the tits. When the squirrels are resident (usually twice per day, morning and early evening), the tits divert to a hidden mixed seed feeder in a shrub, where there is also a suet feeder.
Finally, a handful of dried mealworms are hidden under a prickly rose bush, and are snaffled by robins.
All in all it works like clockwork - the tits have gotten used to the squirrels clock, and time their visits to after 10am when the furry critters have shot off to do squirrelly things in the woods.
Once I give the squirrels their own feeder, I suspect it will work even better !
What I meant to say, and not very clear from my rambling monologue above, was that use you can use distraction feeding to pull the bigger birds (like your dove) and squirrels away from the hanging feeders.
Put piles of stuff you know the bigger beasties will like away from your main feeders (mine are two hanging feeders) - it won’t eradicate them rading the small bird specific areas completely but it will reduce and delay their visits there.