[Metermaid]

Please could anyone give me their recommendations for a medium sized feeder for sunflower seeds ? I have squirrels and also badgers which recently raided my peanut feeder so I need a good one ! Thanks

[Kevin Mac]

Badgers? How cool is that! Can you pet them? We only have badgers on the prairie provinces in Canada and they are repudetly nasty critters. I do have to deal with stubborn and persistent squirrels though. I use a fedder on top of a five foot pole with a squirrel baffel on it. The baffel is a cylinder hanging loosely around the pole that tips when a squirrel tries to get on it.They are available from most bird shops and work great. You have to place the feeder away from trees and buildings that the darned rodents can leap from though.

[Elizabeth Bigg]

Originally Posted by Metermaid

Please could anyone give me their recommendations for a medium sized feeder for sunflower seeds ? I have squirrels and also badgers which recently raided my peanut feeder so I need a good one ! Thanks

Rita/Metermaid - you can see my squirrel baffles if you go to this thread:

http://www.birdforum.net/showthread....ghlight=baffle

Where was the feeder that the badger raided?

[Metermaid]

Thanks for replies ...Kevin - no haven't managed to see badgers let alone pet them ! we only see the holes they dig in the night looking for worms !
Elizabeth - feeder was hanging from a wooden arch way, I was at first sceptical that they could have got to it but apparently they do climb (actually it was only about 3 ft up so hind legs would probably have done it !), they had knocked over pretty heavy ornament just under feeder and I found badger hair also (you can apparently identify this as it is 'square' not round and therefore doesn't roll in your fingers ! - everyone who comes to the house now gets a complimentary hair so they can try this for themselves !).

[shelley810]

Cripes!!!!
I don't know if your badgers are any different from our badgers in the US, but they are nasty and tenacious! I use a couple feeders from Duncraft (one for peanuts and one for blackoil sunflower seed) that are (thus far) squirrel and large bird proof *can't say if they have been badger tested! Inner cylinder holds the feed, outer part is the best cage (measurement wise) that I've used so far. Large birds can't get at the inner feed core, small birds can quite easily, and only the ones that are interested in the food, not just to scavenge. Squirrels can reach in, but can't access the inner core with any kind of success, I've not had them even try here.
Baffels work great, provided the feeder can't be reached by leaping from anywhere else on top.
Shelley

[Elizabeth Bigg]

Originally Posted by Metermaid

Thanks for replies ...Kevin - no haven't managed to see badgers let alone pet them ! we only see the holes they dig in the night looking for worms !
Elizabeth - feeder was hanging from a wooden arch way, I was at first sceptical that they could have got to it but apparently they do climb (actually it was only about 3 ft up so hind legs would probably have done it !), they had knocked over pretty heavy ornament just under feeder and I found badger hair also (you can apparently identify this as it is 'square' not round and therefore doesn't roll in your fingers ! - everyone who comes to the house now gets a complimentary hair so they can try this for themselves !).

I had heard about the shape of the badger hair when I went to a badger group meeting next to a sett, but I had forgotten. We weren't offered one to feel though!

[scampo]

Originally Posted by Metermaid

Please could anyone give me their recommendations for a medium sized feeder for sunflower seeds ? I have squirrels and also badgers which recently raided my peanut feeder so I need a good one ! Thanks

I doubt the badgers would eat sunflower seeds - but they do love peanuts. I think most nature reserves that have a shop sell squirrel proof feeders. When I can afford it, I'll be buying one!

[songbird6666]

Here's a link for your folk in USA - a webcam on our Badgers, which are very timid creatures, I have been lucky and have seen them in the wild several times, they can become quite tame in suburban gardens when people feed them, but in normal setts in woodland, they make themselves scarce if they sense any human interference.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/devon/outdoors/.../badgers.shtml

[shelley810]

Originally Posted by songbird

Here's a link for your folk in USA - a webcam on our Badgers, which are very timid creatures, I have been lucky and have seen them in the wild several times, they can become quite tame in suburban gardens when people feed them, but in normal setts in woodland, they make themselves scarce if they sense any human interference.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/devon/outdoors/.../badgers.shtml

Thank you Songbird! Here is a quick fact sheet and picture of our Badger....your's seems the more gentle sort!
Shelley

http://www.nhptv.org/natureworks/americanbadger.htm

[songbird6666]

Thanks Shelley, that's a really interesting site . Your badgers do have a nasty look about them to be sure! Wouldn't like to trip over them in a field at night anyway (like I did with a pair here!)

[shelley810]

Oops! Gentle sort or not, they would have freaked me out if I had tripped over them!! No worries on tripping over the American Badger....heard he can pack quite the smell.....think he is ranked as one of the stinkest animals on earth!
Shelley
By the way....
I spent a bit of time in your country this past March....went out on the Gower....lovely, lovely, lovely.....I need to go back and explore some more. It was there that I was first introduced to the wonderful birds of Great Britian.