Since September I have had a new squirrel take over the territory left when Squidge and all the others disappeared suddenly in August. This one was very shy at first but he has become quite mischeivous and is a lot tamer in that he doesn't bother too much if I go out the back door, he'll just go behind the fence at the top of the garden and peer over to see what I am up to.
His diet is also a lot more varied because he particularly like sunflower kernels (which are quite expensive so I have called this one 'Sunny'), Tesco's cheap equivalent of hob-nob biscuits, tasty shoots off the honeysuckle and the robin seed and insect mix as well as the peanuts in the special feeder which is screwed just under the bird table.
This morning I put out some seed onto the bird table and also a small handful of sunflower kernels as usual. I have two hanging seed feeders for the birds because they make less mess so I put just a small amount on the bird table, mainly for the robin and sparrows, but for the squirrel too. Sunny came down onto the bird table and munched his way through the sunflower kernels and anything else he fancied. A few minutes later when I looked out, he was climing up one of the poles outside the kitchen window trying to work out how to get at the hole in the seed feeder. I tapped on the window and called out to him and he just looked at me for a second or two then carried on so I tapped on the window again. He ignored me so I opened the back door and told him to get down because that wasn't his food. He crept down like a scolded child and crept to the other side of the path watching me and pretending he'd done nothing wrong. As soon as I came back inside he was up the pole to the metal feeder with the peanuts in for the birds! Again I went outside and told him to get down so he stalked off to the fence at the top of the garden.
At this stage I decided the only way to keep him off the bird feeders was to put 'seconds' of seed and sunflower kernels out for him and I put a few peanuts for good measure on the bird table too. When I came in he was up on the bird table in no time stuffing his face so I don't think he will need anything else to eat until tomorrow at least!
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