Squirrel Wars: The Beginning

My dad and mother loved birds but hated squirrels and had a running war with them. They hated squirrels because they ate the bird food put out for song birds. What made my parents so mad was no matter what they did to circumvent them the squirrels always found a way to get to the bird seed. And let's face it squirrels are not great for homes they eat roofs and can be a general pest. But there is a lot we can learn from squirrels, a whole lot.

It happened by accident really, I took up feeding birds when we moved into our new house in 1986. I started by hanging bird feeders around the yard at vantage points that allowed me to watch them from the living room, dining room and kitchen windows. Then the war started! No matter what I did the squirrels always got to the bird feeder. I tried everything. I used anti-squirrel domes on top of the feeders, they figured out how to get past it. No matter what I did they, with an almost human ingenuity, figured it out.

Then one winter I had a bird feeder right outside our dining room window it was on a two hooked planter pole. I had two bird feeders, one on each hook and for quite a while I thought it was squirrel proof. I mean it was close to the house and it was on a fairly skinny pole which I had greased with Crisco. As time passed it got colder and squirrels became less active. I though because of the deep snow I had finally won the battle because of the deep snow; the proximity of the feeder to the house and it was greased. I hadn't!

It was an especially beautiful winter morning as I sat looking out the dining room window drinking a cup of coffee and looking at the deep snow in the back yard I saw her, (I'll call the squirrel Kelly. I don't know the squirrel's sex so for this story I'll make it a female.). Kelly came bounding over the snow headed toward the feeder. She had a determined look on her. I moved closer to the window so I could see what would happen when Kelly tried to climb the up the greased pole to the feeder. I anticipated a good laugh and I got one. Up she jumped and down she came. I thought that would be the end of it but she did it again and again. Then she stopped and sat there she looked like she was thinking! Then up she went again. I figured that even if Kelly could get up to the top there would be a jump from the center pole to the feeder or she would have to climb over the rounded part of the greased hook and there was no way that could happen so she would probably just give up. I was wrong.

Kelly tried over and over to get up the pole but slid back down every time but the last time she tried. On her last attempt she made it to the top. Kelly never gave up trying until she succeeded. I wondered about that, how often I tried a couple of times and gave up. But here was a squirrel who just wouldn't quit. As I watched Kelly sit at the bottom of the pole I found myself pulling for her. I wanted her to succeed and was almost cheering when she made it to the top!

Then came the part of getting to the feeder. She set her mind on the right one though she gave the one on the left some consideration once she chose her target that was it. She had a singleness of purpose. So often we get sidetracked. We want to achieve a goal but along the way something comes along and we forget the one goal and seek a new one or we get distracted by shinny objects. Consequently we often do not achieve either goal. Or after playing with the shinny object find our goal is long gone and what was once attainable is no longer there.

Kelly first tried climbing over the right hook to get to the feeder. But the rounded part of the hook was greased and she fell off when she tried to climb over it. Down she went! Only to come right back up this time she made it to the top of the feeder center pole with only two tries. As I looked closer at the greased pole I noticed she had lost some of her fur in the attempts to get to the top. Her determination cost her some pulled fur and of course several cleanings to get the grease off of her. From that I learned that it always costs us a little fur to succeed. Kelly also taught me that to succeed you must learn from failure and never give up seeking your goal.

Finally, after three attempts she made it to the feeder. She hung on the top with her feet while she carefully lowered her head to the bird seed. My war like instinct was tempted to knock on the window but my competitive nature wouldn't allow it, she won and deserved to get what she earned by hard work. I let her eat her fill. When she left I re-greased the feeder and put a dome on top of each. I was ready for the next battle.