My secret remedy to keep squirrels off of bird feeders

This is a true story. I was living in a suburb of Chicago called Highland Park. I saw some of the best birds ever from my little tree house in a ravine. What a great place to make Uccellino! Those little birds in my back yard were my guide birds.  Like the threesome of rose-breasted grosbeaks that landing in our yard. It was a migrating season and as will happen in Chicago, a cold front appeared and out of nowhere three red-breasted grosbeaks landed in our yard and stayed for three days.

Any how what was I going to tell you about? Oh yes, SQUIRRELS!  I was determined to keep the squirrels off of my feeder because they were so destructive. They hogged the seed and they gnawed away at the feeder. It was so irritating. I tried various types of feeders that guaranteed to keep squirrels off of them. But I tell you, those bushy tails are crafty. I think that they are the masters of the universe, but I out smarted them! Once I saw a red-tailed hawk lift a squirrel off of my feeder but I couldn’t always count on that to happen so I had to come up with something else.

So, I put my feeder in the middle of the yard where no trees were accessible but dang it all if those squirrels didn’t shimmy up the pole. So, I greased the pole with crisco oil. Being a southern girl comes in handy! We love our Crisco in the South.The squirrels shimmied and slid right down! It was hilarious! Then, they took running leaps to get better leverage and still slid down!

I know that some may not believe this part but it’s true! I had a kitchen window where I stood and watched all of this happen. The squirrels saw me watching and one climbed onto the window and looked me in the eyes, took his paw and motioned it towards his mouth in perfect pantomime as if to say,” I’m hungry, please feed me” I shook my head and said,”No!” So you know what happened next? They dug up my tulip bulbs! I kid you not!