For Kevin French (and his squirrel) *LINK*

Re: For Kevin French (and his squirrel)

Kevin French, Antrim, NH

>Thanks Dan, That was great.

I'm just about to try another approach, maybe tomorrow so I'll let you know how long it takes them to defeat it.

ROTFLMAO--Too funny, Dan

Wiley Horne--So. Calif.

>After he hung onto that tire-iron looking spinner after that first long jump, you just knew he'd make it. I was squirting one with the hose a coupla months ago (only weapon near to hand) to run it off--he went a little ways further out on his tree branch, and then just started chattering at me. Didn't seem to mind the water.

Wiley

Speaking of that...

Bob Hackett

>What was the outcome of the last go?

I have an Everlast chisel waiting for someone as I don`t think it made my prediction of 8 days(I had faith in ya though Kevin).

Mainely,Bob

That was great!

Scott Burr in Ben Lomond CA

>I realy liked the vending maching robbery.

Good luck Kevin, your gonna need it!

Re: Speaking of that...

Wiley Horne--So. Calif.

>Bob,

It was kinda indistinct what happened, because the squirrel(s) won multiple times. And certainly before day 8. Although Kevin reclaimed a little bit of dignity by hitting one with a rock, or coming close enough to brag about. Bottom line: I finally threw in the towel and put my dado planes on the block.

Wiley

Re: That was great!

Kevin French, Antrim, NH

>Scott IF it doesn't work the dump has provided the final solution, Not ONE but TWO pump pellet guns. I don't want to resort to violence but... I may have to go Postal on them.

Hmmm, 1 for each hand...

Scott Burr in Ben Lomond CA

>The Kevinanator... Squirrels be very afraid

Re: New Plan

Kevin French, Antrim, NH

>I cut a 10' piece of electrical conduit into 3" pieces and threaded them onto the wire with a fender washer between each section. So there's 5' (20 sections) on each side of the feeders and I moved one end of the cable away from the end post of the hand rail.

No real hope this time, figure it's going to come down to the pellet gun this weekend.

Re: New Plan Day 1

Kevin French, Antrim, NH

>No Rats beyond the barrier, two feeding on the ground and the feeders are still full

I give 'em 3 days at the outside.

Wiley Horne--So. Calif.

>

Holy smokes, That's starting to look like...

Scott Burr in Ben Lomond CA

>Some weird folk art sculpture.

Let's see Wiley's got 3 days, I'll say 4 days tops.

Re: Holy smokes, That's starting to look like...

Kevin French, Antrim, NH

>Your both going to be wrong. That rat ALMOST made it. I added a six point Spider web to slow him up.

Maybe what you need to do

Bill Houghton, Sebastopol, CA

>is make a squirrel feeder - remove the challenge, and they'll get bored and move on to another place where there's something interesting to do.

Or, the squirrel feeder would keep them in one place for easy aiming with the pellet gun...

Tried that

Jack Guzman from Maine

>Squirrel feeders don't keep them away from bird feeders.They just draw more squirrels.Reminds me of a funny story.

I was working in a crawl space under a kitchen floor and I noticed some pieces of scrap wood laying about under the floor. I asked the home owner about them. He told me that the guy who built the floor tossed the scraps in there to discourage termites from eating the floor joists.---Jack

How about this?

Pam Niedermayer - Austin, TX

>I supose you're all going to jump down my throat, but how about not feeding the birds via bird feeder? Perhaps those of you in the more northern climes should encourage them to migrate south in the winter, live off the land.

Pam

Re: How about this?

Kevin French, Antrim, NH

>Pam WO/ any attempt the jump... that is one train of thought. My reasoning FOR attracting the birds is the small hockey rink sized pond you might be able to make out in the background of the picture. Between that and the brook to it we have a home for clouds of Black Flies and many, many Mosquitoes. So instead of spraying I hope to attracted more birds. Purple Martin house and Bat housessss going up this winter.

That and tomorrow my mother is coming from FLA to watch the house for three weeks while we're on vacation and she loves to watch the birds. To give her three weeks of feed I need to slow up the feeding of the gray rats. Refill requires a 10' pole, a step ladder, and she's 83.

We do our best to not feed the rest of the 'Wilds', the song birds I'm trying to work, and you have to feed employees to keep them happy.

Re: How about this?

Dale Stansbery

>I think birds that eat seeds probably don't eat insects.

Re: How about this?

Jack Guzman from Maine

>I consider the squirrels a necessary side effect of feeding birds. If you could see the variety of beautiful birds we get around our feeders you'd understand why we do it. My wife has been feeding them for many years and we get alot of bird traffic.Also I don't think,even if everyone followed your advice,that it would cause birds to change their migration habits. Of course I'm no expert and I could be wrong,just my opinion.---Jack

Re: How about this?

Pam Niedermayer - Austin, TX

>I have seen the birds (lived in Boston and Falmouth for 20 years), they are beautiful; but even before I left in 1999 I started hearing reports that birds had changed their migration habits and were staying in the north for winter, possibly due to feeders, without which they'd die in the winter.

Pam

Re: How about this?

Pam Niedermayer - Austin, TX

>Good on you for not spraying; but Dale's right, if you want them to eat insects you'll probably have to remove the feeders. Bats are great at this job (Austin has a huge colony of bats living under a bridge, a real tourist attraction).

Best of luck with all this.

Pam

Re: How about this?

Kevin French, Antrim, NH

>Pam I was cross checking Dale's reply on Goggle and one of the things I saw on three or four sites in the FAQs was that feeders didn't intrupt migration. Also saw a lot of the seed eaters also ate bugs, but I haven't finished with that search.

My own feelings are, it's warmer here now, there's less snow cover and the ground is 'open' later.

Maybe so, I can be wrong. :)

Pam Niedermayer - Austin, TX

>

Re: How about this?

VLParisian

>I used to feed the wild birds on a feeder outside our kitchen window in Cypress TX. We were blessed with an extended visit by a couple of Eastern Blue Birds. We took the feeder down later when neighbor's cats figured out that they could "hide" in plain sight directly under the feeder, leap up the five feet from the ground and grab a bird almost at will and a lot faster than it took to type this. I learned to spread the seed smack in the middle of the driveway so there were no blind spots for the cats to hide in.

Enjoy the birds

Victor - Pearland, TX

different approach *LINK*

Tom in Tipp

>Video:

This has been around awhile but it will be my solution sometime soon.


http://www.filecrush.com/files/catapult.html