Super confused why NO squirrels are targeting my unprotected bird feeders?? (1 Viewer)

[SnowyTropical]

I live in Arizona (Fountain Hills). I just started feeding wild birds 6 months ago (I have learned a LOT!) and I'm addicted to it... it's so amazing seeing wild birds and I even have a Northern Cardinal and his girlfriend visit... soooo amazing! What I am super confused about is...

I have SEVERAL squirrels in my backyard... in fact 3 of them LIVE in the ground literally 3 feet close to my bird feeders!! I have 4 bird feeders hanging from my bird feeder pole (shaded by umbrella) that would be VERY easily accessible to the squirrels (because it's 3 feet away from a fence and the feeders are very close to the ground!) yet ZERO squirrels bother my bird feeders. It's CRAZY!! I think these are NOT ground squirrels... they are BIGGER in size and it appears what I am seeing are rock squirrels?? Is this WHY I do not have a "squirrel problem" yet? I HOPE it stays that way LOL

I thought rock squirrels eat bird seeds though? So WHY on earth don't I have squirrel problem then? I'm not complaining about it that's for sure... is it only a matter of time before I do have squirrel problem? I do not understand this!! The squirrels literally walk next to the bird feeder like it is not even there as if it were INVISIBLE!! ... and the annoying Doves eat ALL and any spilled bird seed that ends up on ground (I only use bird feeders the Doves cannot eat from anymore).. so the squirrels are NOT getting any food from bird feeders.

I plan to build custom bird feeder station soon that will have a better/larger roof than a small umbrella (desperately need shade from AZ's horrific heat/sun and better protection from rain) and perhaps I will build it with PVC pole just incase I do end up with squirrel situation down the line...

 

[SnowyTropical]

OMG!! I think I cursed myself... suddenly I see a smaller squirrel that just showed up in my backyard 5 minutes ago (I took photo of it 🤬)... perhaps not a rock squirrel this time? I have cameras pointing at my bird feeder and I can assure you NO squirrel has climbed up onto my bird feeders yet nor do they empty suspiciously fast... but judging by what I just saw I see it's only a matter of time before squirrel problem happens. I need to build my custom bird feeder ASAP. I will make the feeders MUCH higher up and the pole will be covered by vinyl sheet or PVC so squirrel cannot climb up it... and I will build a roof for it.

Problem is that the feeder station will still be close to the fence! I have NO other good place to put it! =( So I need to figure out how to resolve this because now I fear squirrels will just climb fence and EASILY jump onto the feeder?

Unless I somehow have a "shield" of some sort built into my custom bird feeder to BLOCK squirrel jumping from fence onto the feeder... not even sure how I'd do that!?... 🥶

 

[01101001]

OMG!! I think I cursed myself... suddenly I see a smaller squirrel that just showed up in my backyard 5 minutes ago (I took photo of it 🤬)... perhaps not a rock squirrel this time? I have cameras pointing at my bird feeder and I can assure you NO squirrel has climbed up onto my bird feeders yet nor do they empty suspiciously fast... but judging by what I just saw I see it's only a matter of time before squirrel problem happens. I need to build my custom bird feeder ASAP. I will make the feeders MUCH higher up and the pole will be covered by vinyl sheet or PVC so squirrel cannot climb up it... and I will build a roof for it.

Problem is that the feeder station will still be close to the fence! I have NO other good place to put it! =( So I need to figure out how to resolve this because now I fear squirrels will just climb fence and EASILY jump onto the feeder?

Unless I somehow have a "shield" of some sort built into my custom bird feeder to BLOCK squirrel jumping from fence onto the feeder... not even sure how I'd do that!?... 🥶

Hope the below helps, though it's not my advice:

At one point over the years I had a dozen feeders up which greatly improved the bird population in my backyard. But the squirrels kind of ruined that for me as they were destroying feeders to get the seed out of them. When they destroyed a supposedly squirrel free feeder that I spent almost $50. US dollars on, I kind of got fed up and put less feeders out which cut the amount of birds visiting my yard. I did learn that mixing hot red pepper in with the seed helped a great deal in removing the squirrels from the feeders with no harm to the birds. Right now my bird population seems to be doing okay. We'll wait and see