Pic-a-nik table

My eldest gave me a bird feeder that looks like a little picnic table for Mother’s Day (I *may* have laid out some heavy hints). It came rigged to be hung, but after trying it that way for a couple days, I decided to mount it to the tree.

Photo description: small picnic table shaped feeder screwed to a post oak tree and filled with seed

The tray serves a dual purpose, both as entertainment (although the squirrels don’t have proper table manners), and to catch the corn the squirrels drop from the spinning corn holder (which doesn’t spin when they eat off of it, but does hold 5 ears of corn). The squirrels drop the corn after they eat the tip off and discard the rest of the yellow part of the corn kernel.

Photo description: downward view of the squirrel feeder, showing the discarded corn kernels

Bold.

I hadn’t even finished putting new corn cobs on the squirrel-go-round when a squirrel came down to investigate.

Photo description: squirrel sitting on the corn feeder looking at the camera from about three feet away

This one has a notch out of the right ear. She may have earned herself a name.

Squirrel go round

Our dried corn cob holder for the squirrels broke, so I found a replacement. It has screw eyes to hold five cobs on a rotating hub.

Photo description: squirrel obstacles with tire swing, rope ladder, and corn cobs on a spin able wheel

The lightest corn cob is the easiest for the squirrels to strip off kernels, as it is right at the top of the wheel. Then it gets more challenging to get at the kernels on the other cobs. The squirrels figured it out, though, and cleaned off every cob. They did shoot me annoyed looks.

Happy Mother’s Day to all that get the eye roll from those you nurture.

Peanut cage

Squirrel challenges continue, this time I cleaned up a suet cage and put shelled raw peanuts inside.

Photo description: wire suet holder filled with shelled peanuts

This was a big hit. The squirrels went bonkers getting the peanuts out and running off with them. It was challenging, but not impossible. I even saw a small bird swoop in, pluck a peanut from the side, and fly off. Not a coconut, but still the peanut was larger than I thought a bird that small could carry! On day two I had to wrap the chain around the hook once because the squirrels figured out how to get it down and dragged it halfway across the yard.

Adding obstacles

The squirrels really appreciate that I put out dried ears of corn, but they go through one ear in a day. I added an obstacle, so they have to work harder for the corn by tying knots in a 1/2” hemp rope and adding a screw eye. The corn is twisted onto the screw and hangs in the middle of the rope.

Photo description: Rope tied from the bird feeder stand to to railing with an ear of dried corn hanging from the middle

The squirrels have figured out how to get one kernel at a time off, but prefer the birdseed. We have a four squirrel family, so maybe one will figure this out while the others are gorging on seed.