Rec'd in mailbag SRN hdqtrs 1-7-10Dear Raccoon Editor,
Recently you wrote about trying to keep squirrels from your hanging chickadee feeder outside your office window. You were trying putting pie plates at the ends of the wire holding the feeder. We've heard of that approach and wonder if you've had success?
S/ Hopefully
Dear Hopefully,
One intrepid squirrel, knowing that we watch from this nearby window, tried dressing up as a raccoon. He must have thought we are so on board with raccoons that we wouldn't mind if he gave it a try. As intelligent humans, we immediately knew he was a fake raccoon. At a distance he night have fooled us, but this feeder is on the otherside of the window glass only a yard away. We know crepe paper and spray-painted tails when we see them.
The pie plate deterrent? The raccoon/squirrel leaped right over it to the wire from the fixed bracket and did a tippy Wallenda walking act to the feeder. He was slowed by the slippery varnish on the gourd and was so upended by the straining effort that he didn't eat very much. We looked into his hungry eyes behind the paper mask after fruitlessly pounding on the window and decided that we could surely spare a bit of seed for this daring creature.
S/ Ed.
Of course, watching squirrels saw this bravado and thought, 'If a raccoon can do that, so can we!'
