birds and squirrels

I give up. I've tried to keep the squirrels off the feeder and it's just not working. They shimmy up the beam on the porch and leap onto the feeder with such grace that it seems almost rude to run out there and scare them off. Wait a minute ... BIRD feeder not SQUIRREL feeder. [Runs outside and chases squirrel away ...] The birds do seem to be okay with landing on the feeder at the same time as the squirrels are there, but this is bird seed we're buying, not squirrel seed. Rascals.

So I coated the seeds with this spicy squirrel repellant that was in the garage. It involves mixing the bird seed with a tiny bit of oil and some spicy stuff (like cayenne pepper) and then filling the feeder with that. Granted, it does say on the container of spicy stuff that it takes some time to get the squirrels to stop coming back to eat the spicy seeds, but I just watched one sit there and feast and he definitely didn't run off with smoke coming out of his ears like I hoped! The spicy doesn't bother the birds, thank goodness, but it's supposed to bother the squirrels! I'll give it some more time and see if they stop coming back, but so far today has been a feast day for those fat little buggers. Ah well ... they have to eat too I suppose.

The battle continues.