"Peace in our time..."

Or at least peace with the squirrels. Well, a truce with the squirrels would be more like it. Last year the little bushy-tailed rats of the forest ravaged our bird feeders like a bunch of rampaging Visigoths. After a lot of "squirrel proofing" which included putting feeders up on poles, installing squirrel baffles and sheathing one side of the house where we have window feeders with sheet metal, I am happy to announce that the squirrels almost never get into the feeders we have reserved for the birds. We have left the "covered bridge" feeder, shown in the picture with two squirrels, installed on the deck railing so that our thieving furry friends won't feel unloved. Although the squirrels have figured out how to get on all of the feeders, they don't seem to want to work too hard at it and have been pretty happy with the sunflower seeds in the covered bridge. We do have a platform feeder in the side yard hung on the side of our big old maple tree, but I have pretty much given up on stocking it. If you put anything out on a platform feeder, the squirrels fill their cheeks with as much as they can, run off and hide their bounty, and then return for more. As a result, a couple of squirrels can empty a platform feeder in record time. I wouldn't mind so much if they actually ate what they hide away. Unfortunately, they forget where they put a lot of their hidden food. This is great in the forest as the squirrels end up planting a lot of acorns or beechnuts or whatever which helps trees reproduce. When the squirrels are performing the same trick with sunflower seed from my feeder, it's a lot less endearing.