The Battle Rages On: Squirrels Versus Hummingbirds

Photo source: Jutitu, Morguefile.com,

It’s like Clash of the Teeny Titans in my yard this week. After determining that the hummingbird feeder had neither leak nor hole, we realized that the culprit was the squirrel that looks a lot like Pierre the cat (gray with big white hourglass on his belly).  The hummingbird feeder hangs from the metal trellis that flanks the entrance to the flower garden. In the winter, we hung the bird feeder with bird seed there. I swapped it out earlier this week. Now my squirrel friend is angry…and he’s developed a taste for hummingbird nectar.

I watched from my office windows, a perfect view from above to see his antics. He hung by his back feet and tail and used his front paws to twist off one of the fake plastic flowers on the base of the feeder. Then he hung onto the trellis upside-down, tilted the feeder, and drank from the open hole. The problem is when he’s done, he uses the hummingbird feeder as a launching pad, making it swing like a bell….and gush red nectar everywhere.

My poor hummingbirds. They keep zooming around the feeder, darting this way and that. Their flowers are blooming in the garden, but they want that nectar.

I’ve got to cut back Mr. Squirrel’s supply this week, so no more nectar until either I can find a squirrel-proof hummingbird feeder, move the bird’s supply closer to the porch, or think of a clever solution.

Considering I saw a nature program on television in which a scientist tested the gray squirrel’s intelligence and found that he could put 24 obstacles between a squirrel and a bird feeder, and the squirrel could figure out and remember how to overcome each one….I am not hopeful. I think this guy has me at an impasse.