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North American grey squirrels jumping distance? (1 Viewer)

Ruff

Ruff

Two birds in one.
At my home, I've been living in a state of uneasy feeder peace with the local squirrel population, which as far as backyard raiders goes numbers I should say about 10-12. They visit my birdbath for fresh water but haven't been able to get at any bird seed I don't choose to give them because all my feeders are squirrel proof. Or were; at the beginning of the spring I obtained a very nice second hand setup featuring a tube feeder with a tray at the top of an unclimbable 8' pole with a heavy sandfilled weight at the bottom, very trouble free because everything lowers for cleaning/filling. The new setup being more comfortable for larger birds like cardinals and jays to feed at, they became commoner visitors than before, which was nice. Five days ago, and I guess predictably enough, the local tree rodent population figured out not only that the feeder was filled with tasty sunflower seeds but also that they could jump onto it from a fence that is about 5 feet away and three feet lower, and started the usual occupation and massive consumption they're famous for.

Which rather long story is leading up to say that my plan is to raise the new feeder another 2-3 feet in the air and also to adjust its position on the ground to get it as far as possible from anything the squirrels can use as jumping off places... but before I face defeat, I'm wondering if there's any hard data as to how far and how high these arboreal pests can jump?
 
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I'm convinced they can figure out anything. I once had a "squirrel proof" setup and several times I noticed one wily little bugger sitting out there looking at it from a nearby deck rail. He was often up on his rear two haunches, with one paw held at mid-chest (VERY reminiscent of the "Napoleon" pose where someone rested a hand in a button placket of a coat-we even nicknamed him "Napoleon" for this) just STARING. As the saying goes, you could just "see the wheels turning" in his little walnut sized head.

A few days later, I noticed him (them?) on the feeder from there on out.

I get REALLY mad at them, but I also have to respect them.

A couple of personal analogies here:

1. Occasionally, I have heard someone that has kids tell me that sometimes they have had to punish their kids for something but secretly they were darned impressed with the kid's ingenuity...

2. Being in law enforcement, my friends in the related jail/detention/prison world tell me that you always have to remember that the prisoner can sit 24/7 and devote their entire existence to overcoming/defeating your security measures. Such is the little hairy rat we refer to... o:D
 
Seen them go 6 foot, not quite 2 meters vertically, on my feeder.
Rather than raise the bar any further, I put out some dried ears of corn close to their haunts
Keeps them away from the feeder, and maybe the excess weight helps keep them grounded.

Seen one on a transformer make contact with an energized 2.4kv bushing.
It was blown perhaps 5 meters horizontally and fell another 10 meters.
It hit the ground running and scampered away like nothing happened.
 
Y'all need to look up on Google, the Squirrel Buster feeder. I have 3 of them and the squirrels and raccoon population give up quickly after several tries as their weight closes the ports on the feeders. You can also make adjustments for various weights.
 
I do have squirrel proof feeders but as I said they are not user friendly for some of the larger birds (even though they can use them and do occasionally). If grey squirrels can jump six feet vertically, there is little hope I can place the new feeder anywhere they can't get it but we'll see. It does have a very nice baffle on it BTW. I don't mind feeding the tree rats, and did, but am rather sorry I got started because they've also begun raiding my garden vegetables, mostly digging them up, no doubt feeling I'm not generous enough. Since they're not known for that sort of thing, I'm hoping it's just exploration. But they never did it before either.
 
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My mom once had a problem with squirrels digging up things (bulbs or roots) in her garden. I wondered if they were hiding things there, but she felt they were gnawing on what she was growing....

Jumping is an Olympic sport for squirrels. They are fearless and have no concern with possible failure and will try again and again and again before deciding on a new approach. Certainly the "wheels are turning" sometimes. Yes, I could learn something from squirrels :-O
 
I've not had the problem with squirrels doing 6' high jumps to get to my feeders, possibly because mine were too fat. ;)
A baffle to discourage climbing and a safe distance from jump-off points was quite enough. Squirrels are just as lazy as we are and avoid extra effort.
At this time, when there is food everywhere, there should be little incentive to raid your feeders unless they are really easy to get to.
 
Today watched a parasitic arboreal rodent known as a squirrel employ a nearby feeder to make it onto the top of the baffle on the new feeder, only to be defeated by the larger round tray above that. The flea bitten creature jumped off when I got up to get a better view of what would happen next. I don't know if the foul pest could have worked out a way to stand on the baffle and reach up and swing, Olympic style, onto the feeder itself- but I'm sure I'll find out.
 
Ruff said:
Today watched a parasitic arboreal rodent known as a squirrel employ a nearby feeder to make it onto the top of the baffle on the new feeder, only to be defeated by the larger round tray above that. The flea bitten creature jumped off when I got up to get a better view of what would happen next. I don't know if the foul pest could have worked out a way to stand on the baffle and reach up and swing, Olympic style, onto the feeder itself- but I'm sure I'll find out.
Click to expand...

If redoing the feeders is too much hassle, you could put chili pepper mixed into your seeds.
Birds are not affected, but squirrels are. Of course over time the squirrels will get used to it, but you might have a respite.
 
etudiant said:
If redoing the feeders is too much hassle, you could put chili pepper mixed into your seeds.
Birds are not affected, but squirrels are. Of course over time the squirrels will get used to it, but you might have a respite.
Click to expand...

That's a thought. For reasons of convenience in mowing etc, I don't want to move the other feeders around too much and perhaps the present setup will hold them off until the fall. Of course, when you make a drastic change it scares a lot of species off for a while too; moving just the feeder in question, hoisting it up in the way I did, has meant no more cardinals are visiting and probably won't for another week or so.
 
Late to this party but I can tell you, I feel your pain!!! Like you, for several years, I had what was an ideal set up, my valuable tray feeder was mounted on a baffled pole. See, the squirrel proof feeders aren't what I have the problem with, it's the tray feeder that needs protecting. I get (or I should say, I had :C ) Evening Grosbeaks, Black-headed Grosbeak, Band-tailed Pigeons and even the Pileated Woodpeckers and Northern Flickers) coming to that tray feeder, now nothing! My problem started this spring and has just gotten worse. I have trees in my yard, so they could always jump from atop, but the top baffle helped. Lately, they learned to jump from below though, and this I don't think I can solve without moving the feeding station...dammit It's like you said, the non-native Eastern Gray Squirrel can figure out most anything that I do. Incidentlly, not only can they can jump from on top of the feeder, they can jump from at least 6 feet away as you already know, so I don't think raising the feeder will help you. What I now have to do is move that particular pole somewhere that there isn't anything within 20 feet, plus raise it to 8 -20 feet, baffled of course. The problem is, squirrel has a brain the size of a pinhead, but, unlike us humans, they use every square bit of it!

Please keep us posted if you do find some other method, other than moving the pole. I had mine cemented into place, it will be irritating and a nuisance to build a different feeding station, but this will affect my winter plans to feed if birds can no longer feel safe using that tray feeder. :-C:-C:-C
 
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DownyWP said:
Late to this party but I can tell you, I feel your pain!!! Like you, for several years, I had what was an ideal set up, my valuable tray feeder was mounted on a baffled pole. See, the squirrel proof feeders aren't what I have the problem with, it's the tray feeder that needs protecting. I get (or I should say, I had :C ) Evening Grosbeaks, Black-headed Grosbeak, Band-tailed Pigeons and even the Pileated Woodpeckers and Northern Flickers) coming to that tray feeder, now nothing! My problem started this spring and has just gotten worse. I have trees in my yard, so they could always jump from atop, but the top baffle helped. Lately, they learned to jump from below though, and this I don't think I can solve without moving the feeding station...dammit It's like you said, the non-native Eastern Gray Squirrel can figure out most anything that I do. Incidentlly, not only can they can jump from on top of the feeder, they can jump from at least 6 feet away as you already know, so I don't think raising the feeder will help you. What I now have to do is move that particular pole somewhere that there isn't anything within 20 feet, plus raise it to 8 -20 feet, baffled of course. The problem is, squirrel has a brain the size of a pinhead, but, unlike us humans, they use every square bit of it!

Please keep us posted if you do find some other method, other than moving the pole. I had mine cemented into place, it will be irritating and a nuisance to build a different feeding station, but this will affect my winter plans to feed if birds can no longer feel safe using that tray feeder. :-C:-C:-C
Click to expand...

Would not a larger flat (Cooley hat style) baffle beneath your tray feeder work? They come is sizes up to 2 feet in diameter and of course you can make your own with a strip of sheet metal. That way they could not easily grab the tray edge. It just seems humiliating to be forced to abandon a nicely set feeder because of these rodents.
 
etudiant said:
Would not a larger flat (Cooley hat style) baffle beneath your tray feeder work? They come is sizes up to 2 feet in diameter and of course you can make your own with a strip of sheet metal. That way they could not easily grab the tray edge. It just seems humiliating to be forced to abandon a nicely set feeder because of these rodents.
Click to expand...

I won't feel humiliated- those critters have evolved to do what they do and they are certainly going to take advantage of anything the terrain offers to get to food. My problem is that I put in some elevated features like high off the ground planters before I got the feeder in question and now it's a contest I hadn't anticipated. At present, they've shown me several ways they can land right on the feeder platform, completely bypassing the baffle defense. Once the growing season has ended, which isn't all that far away here, I'll be rearranging things in the back yard to see if I can defeat the little hellions.

But one must keep in mind that in this area we have the nocturnal creature known as the flying squirrel that presumably can defeat anything a bird can access.... Just kidding, flying squirrels are not known to visit feeders as far as I've ever heard. Black bears, yes.
 
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I'm happy to report success- for a week now, fingers crossed- in relocating my baffled feeder so that my squirrel friends are unable to jump onto it. The trick was to put the base at the same level as the top of everything nearby and far enough away from trees and such that horizontal leaps are not possible either. This meant placing it atop a planter box that's about a metre above the ground making the actual feeder itself very high in the air indeed, but of course the birds don't mind that. Speaking of the birds they're recovering from their alarm at the rearrangement and are starting to visit all the feeders again, including the relocated one.

I realise the feeder in question may be hard to visualize, so I've located a photo at the US Amazon site and it can be seen via this link:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0037UL3I8...=UTF8&colid=SNRCNS6A85XP&coliid=IO7BEP7C5BABE

The photo shows the feeder in the lowered position, ready for filling. The whole thing, including the baffle, is then lifted by sliding it to the top of the pole, and a pin locks it in place. The seed delivery platform of my unit is now about 3 metres or 10 feet above ground level, I should say. Standing by for raids by North American flying squirrels next.
 
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Happy to report that the feeder in question is now bringing in the larger birds that had a hard time with my other ones. Most notably right now, I'm getting blue jays. These were made rare locally when west nile virus first appeared 10-15 years ago, so it's very nice to see them back. And they don't have to bully the smaller birds in the raucous way they way they usually do when they're sharing a feeder- although of course they still might. :)
 
Good to hear a follow up. Blue Jays are so common I sometimes have to remind myself to actually look at them and stop and appreciate how beautiful they are. The blue color is almost so bold as to appear UNnatural.
 
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