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.
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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