Found the culprits!
BobJudy
Member Posts: 6,630 ✭✭✭✭
We have several bird feeders that we have out all year. Living in a rural setting it used to be a battle to keep the squirrels and raccoons from eating all the bird food. About 15 years ago I critter proofed the bird feeder on a pole outside the kitchen window. I used a funnel that came from inside a drum type deer feeder. I mounted it upside down about 3 feet from the ground. Now any critter that tries to climb the pole is stopped by the upside down slippery funnel. It has worked perfectly for all this time.
Yesterday, I looked out the window when I was getting my first cup of java and the feeder was empty. I had filled it the night before and now almost nothing left. Filled it and forgot about it until last evening. Almost a full moon and when I looked out the kitchen window, I saw the culprits. A big fat momma deer was helping herself. To make matters worse the feeder hangs on a chain and as she was tipping it to get the seeds off the tray, she was dumping more on the ground. Her two last year fawns were quick to gobble up all she spilled.
At $30 for a fifty # bag of sunflower seeds, this ain't gonna continue! For now that feeder will come in at night, but somehow I've got to deer proof it. Don't want to hang it higher because that would make it difficult to fill.
Any ideas? Bob
Comments
Put it higher. Use a rope and a pulley to take it up out of the deer's reach. Lower to fill.
Know of a fellow that had a trout feeder over the river. Barrel with hole in the bottom with a trigget that the fish could nose and drop food. Had it on a trolley line and pulled it out over the water. Yogi figured out the system. Pulled the feeder to the bank and feasted on trout chow.
eat the deer
Good thought, just not sure how well that will work with our winter weather, kinda got a freezing rain snow mix going on right now. That might cause some rope/pulley problems. Might have to give it a try to find out.
Glad I don't have Yogi problems too. Closest ones are probably 60 miles north. Bob
When raising it higher remember momma deer will stand on her hind legs and stretch her neck to reach it. You'll need a taller tree.
mount feeder on a round dowel, or wooden broomstick and drive pipe slightly larger in the ground,drill hole in pipe and put bolt throough it at right height to hold wooden dowel, you can lift the feeder out of the pipe to fill/refill then place it back in the pipe to feed........
Try the Liberal cure. Put up a sign saying "This is a deer-free zone".
Or one that says free deer zone, hunters welcome. Best answer is higher, like off a deck or as stated a pulley so it can be raised or lowered. Birds don't mind if it is 12 feet up,
Don't recommend feeding birds anyway.
And fiery auto crashes
Some will die in hot pursuit
While sifting through my ashes
Some will fall in love with life
And drink it from a fountain
That is pouring like an avalanche
Coming down the mountain
Why on earth not?
???? To each his own, I guess.
Thanks for the replies folks. I know the easy answer is to raise it up, but I would then have to move it to another location. Too high and the squirrels can get to it from the BIG maple tree that overhangs it. I enjoy watching them feed outside the kitchen window while have my first couple of cups of coffee in the morning.
Yeah, and that is part of the problem. High enough to get out of reach puts it to close to squirrel access. I think I mentioned a year or two ago about the three legged doe walking on the ice and standing on her hind legs to browse the trees up on the shore. She could reach pretty dang high. We watched her all winter and were amazed how well she had adapted after some yahoo shot off her fore leg the fall before. In the last 50 years I have made a couple of not so perfect shots but always followed up and never lost a deer. Some guys hunting at a neighbors weren't so conscientious.😣 Bob
Because it is bad for them:
And fiery auto crashes
Some will die in hot pursuit
While sifting through my ashes
Some will fall in love with life
And drink it from a fountain
That is pouring like an avalanche
Coming down the mountain
Fair enough. Judy and I do practice the guidelines at the end of the article you posted so I doubt we are causing much harm disease wise. We have had redtailed hawks nest and raise their young. When they are around the population of red squirrels and chipmunks decreases drastically so I think they may prefer them over the songbirds. We did stop feeding last year because of the danger of spreading bird flu so we are trying to be responsible. So unless I notice some ill effects we will continue for now. I did think it a bit odd that the pictures of feeding birds in the article were from a national wildlife refuge. O.K. for them but not me? Bob
Well alrighty then, that is one opinion.