Wednesday, 8:30 AM, 17 degrees, wind W, changeable. The channel looks like it is skimming over with ice, it is hard to tell. The sky is mostly filled with ominous black storm clouds and the barometer predicts snow.
Every winter I wage an unsuccessful war with squirrels raiding the bird feeder. I don’t begrudge them the sunflower seeds, but they actually sit in the feeder and keep the birds away. I suppose I could erect different types of feeders and squirrel barriers, but the squirrels merely see these as challenges to be overcome, and they invariably do so.
In my consternation I came up with the idea of putting a large dish of seeds on the porch floor for the squirrels, assuming they would eat from the convenient dish and stay out of the feeder. As a result, I have a squirrel in both feeder and bowl. I am sure that if I put out a second bowl I will soon have three squirrels, and so on, and still no birds.
Of course I cold find the old pellet gun in the bottom drawer of my dresser, and settle things Old West style, but squirrels are difficult to skin and I won’t shoot anything I am not going to eat. So I find myself impaled on the horns of a self-imposed moral dilemma, while the squirrels have their way with both me and the birds.
I think there are philosophical and practical lessons to be learned from this scenario that are applicable to everything from terrorism to taxes, but I will resist the temptation to go there. One thing is for sure; if you go soft you are going to get pushed around.
I recall an episode of the Larry Meiller show on Wisconsin Public Radio where a man in Madison killed over 100 squirrels in one year and finally gave up. There seems to be an endless supply of the little critters.
ReplyDeleteThat's lots of squirrel pie!
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