Concerned About Peanuts

[AriadnesArt]

We live on almost an acre of land, lots of trees with resident squirrels. I've been putting out unshelled peanuts for the squirrels and have noticed our Scrub Jays make off with them very quickly--seems they're storing them.

After reading several threads here, I'm worried about the peanuts and baby birds. Should I stop putting out the unshelled peanuts?

I'm feeding our birds wild bird mix with black sunflower seeds, which the birds love but which the squirrels also like.

[seb_seb]

short answer-yes
ill leave a longer answer for anyone else

[christine]

Hi Eileen,
Try putting the nuts into a mesh feeder, that way the birds can only take a little at a time.
You'll probably find that your squirrels will still be able to help themselves, ours do!

Christine.

[LezH]

... and, unless you have already, don't bother with the cheap plastic type: the squirrels not only scoff the peanuts but they make pretty short work of the dispenser too. an all-metal one, particularly one in a squirrel-proof cage, is just the ticket.

BTW, one advantage of a feeder where the birds have to demolish the nut to get it through the mesh is that a right royal mess of nut bits scatters on the ground below and attracts ground feeders such as chaffinches, collared doves etc. which all adds to the variety of your garden birdlife.

One tip: hang or place the feeder in as open a spot as possible so the ground bird stands a chance of seeing the neighbourhood cat before he does his worst. If the cat has a bit of ground to cover instead of just leaping murderously from behind the water-butt it means an extra second for the bird to escape.

Happy feeding -

Lez

[christine]

. . read somewhere that suspending an empty plastic soft drinks bottle over the feeder is a good squirrel deterrent.
Its too smooth for them to cling on to and they eventually give up. . supposedly!

Christine.