Squirrel Feeder – Keep Squirrels Away from Bird Feeder

Squngee Squirrel Feeder

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This squirrel feeder called Squngee is hilarious to watch. After the squirrels find it, they just keep at it until there is nothing left. After setting the Squngee up in a location that is away from the bird feeder, the squirrels will eventually find it. It is better than trying to scare away the squirrels, because if you have ever tried to scare away squirrels, they are very hard to get rid of. Hanging a Squngee is an alternative method that requires feeding the squirrels. The Squngee also keeps them busy and allows more time to pass to allow birds to visit the bird feeders.

Squirrel feeder

Squirrel found Squngee

I have spent many hours devising ways to keep squirrels from the bird feeder, but they just don’t care. The squirrels just keep coming back time after time.

I have tried spraying the squirrels with a water hose until they were soaking wet and barking at me. I remember one time the squirrel huffed away and I really felt like I had hurt its feelings. I have tried running at them making noise, scaring them into a panicked scatter, only to have them return in a few moments. I have set up a plastic owl. I devised a releasing bird feeder, just to see how far I could go and they would always come back until the bird food was gone. I felt like Donald Duck when he was getting fed up with the chipmunks, and was devising evil schemes to eliminate them. The Chipmunks always won.

Squirrel Jumping for Squirrel food

Squirrel in mid-jump after moving Squngee up to 2 feet

Find some corn cob squirrel food at the hardware or feed stores, or even amazon.com. The Squngee has lag bolt eye screws that hold the corn cobs really well. The squirrels love the corn so they will find it. Once they know the corn is there and no one is going to harass them, they will keep coming back for more.

Squirrel food

Squirrel food

Testing the distance the Squngee needs to be from the bird feeder will take some trial and error. It may be beneficial to let the bird feeder empty, then supply the Squngee with corn cobs. Let the squirrels find the Squngee and get used to it before you put bird food back in the bird feeder. This way the squirrels will know

Squngee Contents - Squirrel Feeder

Squngee Contents

The Squngee is very easy to set up. Screwing the corn cobs on the lag bolts is very easy as well. It is a process to get it to work the way you want. You are either feeding the squirrels, or trying to deter the squirrels from the bird feeder, or both.


Loggerhead Shrike – Calling and Making Noise to Attract Bugs

At the time, this Loggerhead Shrike was atop a pole that was in the yard and was calling and making noise to attract bugs. As I got closer I found it just continued no matter how close I got.

Once it saw something it liked it would just go down and grab it and come back up again. It kept making these sounds for a while until it finally went somewhere else.

Loggerhead Shrike Photos

These Loggerhead Shrike photos were taken June 2013.

Loggerhead Shrike

 

This bird (Loggerhead Shrike) was discovered on my back porch on the rail one morning and it caught my attention. I noticed that it was not moving. I got the camera out and was able to snap a shot or two and it flew off. After 30 minutes or so, I noticed it on a tree limb. It stuck out, because I don’t remember seeing any of these birds around before. I noticed that it would eventually fly down to the grass and capture something and fly right back up to where it was.

Loggerhead Shrike

Then it would wait patiently until repeating the process. Throughout the day I was able to get a few good photos and also watched it grab a few bugs along the way. Every now and then I would be able to see it attacking an insect of some sort.

Ever since this day, I have been noticing the Loggerhead Shrike almost everywhere I go. On a wire it looks like a mockingbird, until the light gets on it. Then you can see the mask and know the Loggerhead Shrike is just waiting and watching!

Loggerhead ShrikeLoggerhead Shrike with food