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ZEISS DTI thermal imaging cameras. For more discoveries at night, and during the day.

Mystery bird food raider! (1 Viewer)

iridium-77

Active member
Not strictly about birds (so sorry if this is in the wrong forum), but the birds in my garden may ultimately benefit, hopefully!

In the last few weeks we've been receiving fairly frequent night visits by an animal of some kind, which has been helping itself to food from the bird feeder. Our feeder is one of those pole type ones with four hooks for hanging feeders off. We also have a squirrel baffle. We get squirrels in the garden fairly often but since installing the baffle a few months ago I've never seen one on the feeder. Recently though I've been coming out in the morning to find one or two of the feeders actually on the ground, with the contents gone; feeders which are about 1.5 metres clear of the ground.

Mostly it was sunflower seeds to begin with, although I noticed that there was usually a pile of seed casings (for lack of a better description) on the ground where the feeder lay, so whatever had removed it was only interested in the sunflower hearts inside. More recently we've been leaving out pellets of some combination of suet/mealworm though and they must be more tasty because the sunflower seeds have been left alone ever since.

It's not that I mind feeding another animal apart from the birds; I have a separate feeder with nuts in it on a trellis fence, because I like seeing the odd squirrel in the garden too, and I love wildlife in general, not just birds. But the impact from being knocked to the ground is damaging the feeders; the base of one has broken off completely and another is cracking, and if I'm forced to be replacing them continuously then eventually the birds are just going to stop getting fed. Sometimes I've found the feeders in under the shrubs in the flower bed, a few metres away.

So basically I'm trying to find something which:
a) can remove a bird feeder suspended 1.5 metres in the air (pushing the small ring (about 2cm diameter) at the top of the feeder up and across a few centimetres until it cleared the pole's hook)
b) seems to have no problem cleaning out the contents of the feeder on the ground (sometimes the top pops off in the fall but not always)
c) has the dexterity to "shell" a sunflower seed (although admittedly this bit could be something else coming along later)
d) is nocturnal

Anybody got any ideas of what it might be?

I live in the West Midlands, in a town, but not too far away from open countryside, if that helps.
 
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Your best bet to find out for sure would be to borrow a trail cam and set it up one evening! Sounds like quite a puzzle but a badger could well be having a go, or perhaps even deer. Are there any prints left in the morning? You could put sand around the pole to see the prints left.
 
Is there anyway that the squirrels could be leaping from a tree or building onto the bird feeder. You need to have about a 8-10 foot clearance all round the bird feeder to stop horizontal leaps and the baffle needs to be about 4 or 5 feet from the ground to prevent vertical leaps.
 
So, living in the UK you can exclude the Black Bear. ;)

I would also suggest to buy a trail cam. Even if the thief is caught or identified its fun to watch the pictures because it's more interesting than any well-made TV program.

Is it still by nighttime or still in the dark just before dawn when you find the feeder laying on the ground?

Ravens and rooks are not nocturnal. So they could be excluded.

Would it be possible for rats to climb the feeding pole? They are very skilled and sublimely clever. Or could probably mice climb the pole. And it mustn't be the mice themself that kick the feeder off the pole. That can be done by owls trying to catch the mice. Everything is possible in nature.

Do you have racoons in the U. K. like we have in Germany since 1935? They are nocturnal and also clever and skilled climbers.

To repeat my advice: get out and buy one of those trailcams. I have several of them and they provide us lots of fun. My Moultries and Brownings even react and take pictures and movies of mice during nighttime although the trigger of the camera does not only react on movement. In addition the heatsensor of the camera must detect warmth.
 
I don't know what animals you have in your vicinity. In northern US the two nocturnal culprits doing that at our bird feeder were bear and deer. Of course these would tend to eat the seeds whole without leaving shells. I agree that squirrels can leap further than we often expect, but don't think of them as nocturnal. I agree that raccoon is very likely to do this, but guess you don't have them there. A very interesting question!
 
Have you considered rats?

I sometimes get pestered by a very determined squirrel. Despite my shooting him with a low powered air pistol he returns within a few minutes. I think that pistol is a bit too low powered.
 
Some interesting replies there, thanks folks!

Deer: Unlikely - the garden is surrounded by a wooden fence, and neighbours' gardens so I'd hope not!
Badger: It's possible. I've not seen any holes in or under the fence, but that doesn't mean they can't be squeezing in somewhere.
Rook / Raven: Interesting video there. Crafty little bugger! I've not noticed any rooks or ravens around here though but then I suppose I'm not watching it 24/7, especially in the hour or two after dawn.
Rat: Would they get past a squirrel baffle though?
Owl: That would be awesome! I need to get a camera trap! I have no idea if there are any owls about though.
Raccoon: To the best of my knowledge we don't have them in the UK.

I think it's a squirrel (sightly disappointing end to the mystery!) Caught the little thief yesterday morning at 6:30 filling up on sunflower hearts. The feeder was already on the ground though, so I suppose I am assuming it was him and not something that else knocked it down earlier and he was just reaping the benefits. Bottom fell out of the feeder with the impact though, so there's another one gone!

I've seen squirrels eyeing up the feeders but have never seen one get past the baffle. That's why I'd left them a separate feeder with some peanuts in it; I was feeling a bit sorry for them after installing the baffle! And they usually go for that one, which is hanging from the garden fence a few metres away from the bird feeder. Perhaps this is a different, more determined squirrel that only comes around in the early morning? We do have a couple of small trees, and the garden in surrounded by a 6 foot high wooden fence, but the feeder is a few metres away from those in all directions. I do have the option of making the feeder a foot or two higher I suppose, but adding in the last section of the pole was making it hard for me to reach, so I had removed it.

I unfortunately don't know anyone with a trail cam or a camera trap, but I might just start putting money aside for one. Feeder thief aside, I would love to know what goes on out there at other times of the day.
 
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Deer can easily jump wooden garden fences. We had to enclose our garden with proper deer proof fencing to keep the muntjac and roe deer out.

However, I am pretty sure you are right that it is a squirrel who is to blame.
 
This happens to me all the time! I have bird seed out, and by the next morning, it is gone! I think raccoons and squirrels steal mine by climbing right up my pole. I have seen a squirrel do it multiple times in the day, and I have also seen a raccoon under my feeder at night.
What do I do? I put just enough seed out for the birds to eat in one day. By the time the day is over, there is no more left for the raccoons and squirrels. (The birds do get as much as they want)! It does mean filling your bird feeder every morning but I think its worth it! Good luck with you mystery pests!
 
Indeed, that seems like good advice. It's a bit hard to judge how much to put out every day though. I have debated taking the feeders off the pole and bringing them in at night, but since I'm not up at the crack of dawn, and early morning is a prime feeding time, I've opted not to do that for now.

But the first problem was finding out what I'm dealing with in the first place. Now that I'm about 75% sure it's just a squirrel, that gives some scope for making things a bit harder for him!

Thanks for all the suggestions though; there were a couple of animals there that I didn't consider.
 
We have a winner! It's a carrion crow. I've been getting up at random times in the night for the last few days and having a look outside, and have found that the feeders are all intact at dawn, but not at about 8am. So I got up at 5:30 this morning and sat and waited. About half an hour later a crow came along and unhooked a feeder and dropped it to the ground. I reckon it's the same one coming along every morning; I've read they can habitually do stuff like that once they know it's a safe time. It must've noticed me a few seconds later though because then it flew away. I managed to capture it on video, but am unable to upload it here.

That's half the mystery solved anyway. The lid stayed on the feeder after the crow dropped it. I went back to bed for a little while and when I got up again the lid was still on the grass, but the feeder itself (a wire mesh one for peanuts) was gone. Haven't been able to find it either! The lid is a metal top that needs to be unscrewed (about 1/8th of a turn) before it pops off. Squirrel? I get a few sniffing around every day.

So that's three feeders I've lost in the last couple of weeks! Anyone have any suggestions on making them crow-proof?!

(I can't help but begrudgingly admire his ingenuity and perseverance though!)
 
Good to know your detective work paid off! Not so good that you are getting through feeders at such a rate. We tie ours on very securely to the branches of the tree and some of them have double hanging baskets arranged round them to prevent squirrels/larger birds getting to the food as can be seen in the photo.
 

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That's an interesting contraption. It might also help to keep the pigeons away; they make a bit of a nuisance of themselves during the day. The crucial bit is how to hang it securely though, because even if I adopted a cage like that, this crow might just lift the whole thing and dump it to the ground anyway.

At the moment it's just a case of lifting a small circle of metal a few inches until it comes off the end of the pole (as in one of those purpose built feeding stations you can pick up for about £30). The crow seems to have mastered this action because it took him one attempt this morning; he looked like he knew exactly what he was doing. I had tried to secure the feeder to the pole by using string, double-knotted through the hoop and around the arm of the feeding station. I tried that a couple of times last week and next morning the feeder was still on the ground (with string still attached!) In the video I took this morning, before even attempting to lift the feeder, Mr. Crow perched beside it and gave the string a good tug (even though I had given up on tying it around the feeding station by this stage), so he was obviously used to dealing with that too and that's obviously just part of the routine! From landing to removing the feeder took about 15 seconds. It was actually pretty impressive to witness (but I'm still annoyed)!

Need to come up with a more secure way of attaching the feeders, so that even if the hook is lifted clear, it won't fall to the ground. Because then it won't break, and a squirrel can't run off with it! I'm feeling a little ganged up on!
 
I'm sorry it's been a tough go, but what an interesting discovery! Could you put something on the end of the pole that makes it impossible to pull the wire circle off - like a sponge or ball with a hole? (Or maybe I'm still not picturing the set-up correctly? A photo might help)
 
Garden wire might work. I need to go to Homebase over the weekend anyway so I'll get some and give it a try. Will let you know how it goes. Thanks for the suggestion.

If I can find a suitable plastic ball or something similar I'll try that too. I can just see the crow figuring out how to remove those too though! He was back this morning. He took down another feeder. This one was empty; he's doing it to spite me now! :p

As for a photo - it's identical to this feeding station here:
http://nt.greenfingers.com/images/product_images/extra_images/ls7426d/10_Feeding_Station.jpg
 
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