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LAUNCHING SQUIRRELS


https://www.youtube.com/results?sear...ched+off+porch

At guess at that point you're intentionally trying to lure the squirrels in!I'll stick with my new feeder,spending much less in seed and pellets.

one dollar large plastic bowl at the dollar tree store, then some axle grease on the 3 foot hanger the feeder is on and they haven't been on any of my feeders since.

The plastic owl will eventually become a perch for the squirrels and then a tool to get at your seed.It will eventually make their lives easier.

The 1077 is a great pellet pistol but one pump won't even phase a squirrel and by the time you're on the 2nd pump the squirrels will already be gone,never mind feral cats.If you want to thin the population think single pump spring-piston rifle,Beeman,RWS,Gamo are great choices.

The grease they absolutely don't like, I've seen them freek out on attempting to climb down the hanger and after a week they haven't made any attempts to repeat it. I can pump the pistol inside and crack a window and from 20 feet, I think they will get the message.

I luv shooting squirrels :-)

I made a squirrel launcher a couple years ago,,,, great fun,,, check them out on u tube

8 pumps and from 20 feet, three squirrels are back in their nests wishing they had gone to my neighbors feeders or I did enough damage from close range they aren't coming back. Rare to have no squirrels on the ground below the feeders for the second day. Happy to have a couple flickers coming in this year, love the markings on that bird. I have a hawk coming in occasionally to do a little feeding himself, but that is to be expected when you have four feeders going.

I went down the whole squirrel shooting thing for a long time and after a while it just wasn't worth it.If you don't kill them they eventually come back and new ones replace dead ones.When your not home they'll clean you out anyways.

When I started killing squirrels to watch birds it ceased being birdwatching.I finally made the investment in a real squirrel-proof feeder,put away the rifle and now actually relax and watch the birds,the only thing that will be doing any killing at my feeder from now on will the neighborhood Sharpie.

The feeders have been super-active this afternoon attracting a twilight visitor.

we have been bringing in our plastic mesh (turkey wrap) suet feeders
to thaw because at -6 they get hard as a rock.

when placed above a bird feeder roof tiny pieces land there for
the little ones ... like gold finches

I've had too many of the cheap plastic tube feeders destroyed by the tree rats. They will gnaw thru the opening to get as all the seeds, spilling them on the ground.

One unfortunate TR cut its paw pretty badly on the cracked plastic (based on the blood on it).

Used to use my bb rifle to scare them away until I got one with a "thru shot" to the head. Never thought that bb could travel that fast to blow its brain out but that was the last time I used it.

Now I have my feeders where they can only get them if they learn how to fly or operate a ladder.

When they are at their worst, they get into EVERYTHING!
They repeatedly dig up my garden beds looking for acorns they never planted there. I think that a launcher is in the near future, so that I can at least enjoy their demise!!!

We have had three tube feeders hanging from low hanging spruce trees, but when you are one of the few feeding in the area, the hundreds of birds put enough on the ground that they rarely climb down. The large plastic bowls and axle grease seemed to be the final deterrent this year and the pump pellet is now thinning out the rest. Amazing how accurate and powerful that little pump pistol is, broke a spin this morning and send a second limping back up the tree. We have had 4-5 regulars and I think I have probably hurt or killed them all by now. Helps to have windows that open quietly and only 15 yards from where they are sitting, you just need to go to the opposite side of the house to pump as quietly as possible.

Why go through all that?

By the time you are said and done you'll have spent 4-5 times in $$$ on grease,plastic bowls,pellets and most importantly seed than it would cost to buy a true squirrel-proof feeder.

The shooting of the squirrels is fun for awhile but it eventually becomes a chore especially in the dead of Winter and you'll eventually get tired of it,trust me.And as far as the dead ones go who wants to spend the time skinning and dressing them,most folks don't know what do with them as far as prep for the pot goes.

Sold my center console and have large tube of grease left, two bowls at the dollar tree cost me a dollar, tails I saved for dressing up some older Mepps spinners; not cost or trouble for me so far.

To each his own.All I can say is I spent many years doing exactly what you're doing and in the end you'll spend money.

All I do now is go outside pour 5lbs of seed into the feeders once a week and do nothing but watch.No guns,grease or cheezy plastic bowls involved.

visitor i captured on film today
http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c66/ravenob1/hoot.png

This guy has been a frequent visitor:

SNOW Bunting
 

Never saw these birds before....
then up the hill i saw a flock of around 40-60 of-em
doing all these "blue angels " maneuvers
and they'd return back to the electrical wires...

http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c6...ow-bunting.png

Great pics Raven.

Sharp-shinned hawk
 

got about 200 pics + video of this hawk the other day hunting sparrows on my solar array.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WfHbCvsh5OY

Couple days later saw this red shouldered hawk

That is awesome!

Great pics and video PRBuzz.

Buzz
If you didn't sell Rockies toilet you could use it for a bird bath

(Buzz owned (owns?) Rocky Maciano toilet )

Still own the house, the toilet left in a dumpster :(

YOU THREW IT OUT!
I was thinking gold fish bowl on my front lawn, damn :smash:

pre-Blizzard Backyard Party
 

the crow on the left (difficult to see)
is eating meat scraps out of a can

the Turkey's are scratching up old cat food (dry)
that i spread on top of the snow

http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c6...nob1/party.jpg

Goldfinches seem to be turning yellow, maybe the groundhog got it wrong again. No skunks yet though.

So the other day I reloaded my feeders. Have 4 feeders out and 2 suit cages.

I used the last of some high priced food. It was $10 for a little bag at Ocean State. The other 3 got filled with stuff I bought at Lowes, allot cheaper.

I tell ya, what ever is in the more expensive bag must be like crack to the birds. They are turning their nose up at the other 3 feeders. My god. I must have snobby high class birds in the neighborhood.........

I picked up a bunch of suet cakes back in Dec when Ocean State had their "crazy card" deals (buy a product and get a gift card)

So I had a couple dozen cakes, a 50 lb. bag of sunflower seed and a 25 lb. bag of niger seed.

The niger seed is most expensive. 25 lb. bag for $29
Sunflower seed is $22 for a 50 lb. bag
Suet cakes, cheap ones were 8 for $5 or $6, the better ones are $1.00 each.

If you go with any of the mixed seed bags you are essentially wasting money (in the long term).
Mixed seed bags (or seed blends as they like to call them) contain ingredients that are on the bottom of every birds food list.

The two main "junk" additives are cracked corn and millet seeds.
Although both will be eaten by birds, they are not a preferred food choice. Corn, if not eaten, can sour and also affect other seed's germination. Millet is a weed seed, so you WILL find it growing in spots around your yard because birds are notorious for dropping food in flight.

I'm not saying don't use these blended seed bags, but just be aware that you can cover all the backyard bird food needs with just the basics (sunflower, niger and suet).

Do a price comparison and see what you spend and then go with whatever you decide.

Above all else enjoy your backyard feathered friends!

The birds are active today for sure, they seem to know what's coming Thursday, had to top off all 3 tube feeders. The sunflower feeder is nice as the song birds have to work to get that one down to a point I need to top it off and it brings in my favorite birds. The cardinals, nut hatches, chickadees, juncos and finches seem to favor the sunflower. The hundreds of sparrows are pigs and empty my tube feeders in short order, even though I have a cooper picking them off regularly.

I have a downy woodpecker who literally is camped out on my suit feeder and sleeps there hanging on when not feeding. I've thinned out the squirrels and I've seen some large prints in the snow (when around), that indicates some coyotes are taking the dead ones home likely that I've chucked in the brush.

Why would you do such a thing?

You're killing squirrels,throwing them in the brush,attracting and feeding coyotes.This is no good for anyone or anything,including the coyote and any neighbors(and pets) within many miles.

If you're going to kill the squirrels at least keep and consume them yourself,if you don't like that kind of game then I suggest buying a real squirrel-proof feeder if bird watching is really that important to you.

Started watching the eagles nest webcam again.

A nest in PA got destroyed by the winds this weekend.
The tree the nest was in got blown over with a parent bird sitting an egg.

I'm watching the ones in Washington, DC.

I have been seeing a bald eagle a couple days a week driving down the pike in Auburn. What an awesome sight. I damn near ht one a couple weeks ago near Albany. It came off the river and was about 10' above my windshield.

Late last year my brother was driving near his house in NH, and there were turkeys feeding in a hay field, and as he's watching an eagle swooped down and picked off one of the turkeys.

It never stood a chance...

in my neck of the woods
sign's of spring............
even tho its only 14 degrees this mornin
chickadee's changed over to mating call mode
and several song sparrows arrived.... they are
usually the first to return

When the feeders are empty and I'm in the process of refilling, the chickadees are first to arrive, chirping up a storm as if to say "Can't you fill that any faster?"

One of my funniest events this winter was after refilling all the feeders late one afternoon, I happened to recheck the backyard that same night and found an adult raccoon standing on our deck railing attempting to pull down a suet feeder I had close to the house (on a clothes line). It didn't want to give up until I opened the door and it retreated.

I then moved the feeder out of reach.

Now only the birds can access the feeders.

Went by the Naugatuck river in Ct yesterday and saw 2 bald eagles in trees about 25 yards off of route 8. Saw them there previously so I knew where to look. 100s of cars drive by them daily and I doubt more than a few people see them. The river use to be so polluted that it would be different colors based on what color sneaker the keds factor was using to color the sneakers that day.

i put up a wooden bird house that has two holes one on the side
fun to watch the chickadee's go in the side and pop out the front
with a sunflower seed.

i also just changed out the hard as a rock suet
with a huge chunk
of beef fat so the woody's can fuel up
before the freezing rain arrives

I put out suet cakes primarily for the woodpeckers, but I've noticed that because the suet cakes are laced with seeds, virtually all the birds (except for ground feeding birds) are hitting them regularly.

Seeing a sparrow hanging on for dear life while feeding made realize the birds will eat whatever and whenever they can!