An advantage?

[jeff kushner]

So you guys know from the post below that a couple of squirrels had taken possession of the owl box as soon as I mounted it. After their initial gathering of leaves to put inside they have enjoyed the Life of Riley's! No worries of snow, wind or rains. When temps dipped into our local low temps, they stayed home and warm.

We have dozens of them here so we notice their odd behavior.

Fast forward:

There is generally plenty of food sources here. We have water on 2 sides of the yard and live in the woods. Squirrels here have never been able to jump very high
Might be they don't need to, I don't know. Our bird feeder with baffle has never been breached by any squirrel in 2 years! The baffle is 55" above ground and the feeder is 67". Once they try a few times they give up......usually! The other squirrels make their homes in leafballs in the trees fwiw.

This morning we watched Mr Alpha, aka Super Squirrel come out of his box and go over and leap up on the feeder using the baffle as a push off!

So, does his advantage in housing translate to his strength?

I moved the feeder taking up it's cable and raised the baffle accordingly. LOL


Impressive little guy....

 

[Tom]

I don't know about all your questions, but I've got a great pellet rifle if you need to borrow one...

 

[SinLA]

I don't know about all your questions, but I've got a great pellet rifle if you need to borrow one...

Boooooo. Bad Tom. Bad bad Tom

 

[Tom]

Boooooo. Bad Tom. Bad bad Tom.

Oh. You've never had a squirrel get in your attic or in your car's engine compartment and do thousands of dollars in damage. If you had, you wouldn't boo.

 

[SinLA]

Oh. You've never had a squirrel get in your attic or in your car's engine compartment and do thousands of dollars in damage. If you had, you wouldn't boo.

Indeed I HAVE. Many squirrels in attics. Car damage was from rats not squirrels, but same idea.

I stopper up my attic and i have one of those car deterrent things (seems to have worked, unsure if luck or actually does something...

 

[Tom]

Indeed I HAVE. Many squirrels in attics. Car damage was from rats not squirrels, but same idea.

I stopper up my attic and i have one of those car deterrent things (seems to have worked, unsure if luck or actually does something...

Pellet rifle is quicker and easier. And what about the poor homeless owls???

 

[SinLA]

Pellet rifle is quicker and easier. And what about the poor homeless owls???

Owl Houses are luxury good items, not at this time considered a necessity for keeping the owl population housed.

Also: Owl Babies! https://www.youtube.com/@RobertEFuller

 

[Tom]

Owl Houses are luxury good items, not at this time considered a necessity for keeping the owl population housed.

Also: Owl Babies! https://www.youtube.com/@RobertEFuller

I love barn owls! Planning on getting a CB one soon.

If I'm going to go to the trouble of putting a luxury owl house up for owls, I'll be keeping the squirrels out of it. The squirrels can have their squirrel house.

 

[The_Four_Toed_Edward]

I don't know about all your questions, but I've got a great pellet rifle if you need to borrow one...

Not that I wanted to, but we don't have that freedom here in Finland. You are only allowed to shoot squirrels from 1.11. to 28.2. with a hunting permit. And I bet there are some other limitations too.

 

[SinLA]

Not that I wanted to, but we don't have that freedom here in Finland. You are only allowed to shoot squirrels from 1.11. to 28.2. with a hunting permit. And I bet there are some other limitations too.

I'm surprised there are that many out and about that time of year...

 

[The_Four_Toed_Edward]

I'm surprised there are that many out and about that time of year...

I think the aim of the law is to avoid disturbing nesting and protect young squirrels until they are old enough. And yes, there are quite a few out and about compared to some other animals. The species around here is the Eurasian red squirrel (Sciurus vulgaris). They prepare their nests specially for winter and hide food in preparation. Also during the winter they often feed from bird feeders.

 

[jeff kushner]

I'll keep "juicing" my guys with cashews and other high protein foods.....just to see what happens.

I appreciate the offer Tom but I'm good guys. I take pellet rifles to the "nenth" degree.

Gamo .177
Beaman .22
Benjamin Marauder-highly modified with computer night/day scope .25

I used to be an NRA shooter...got pretty good, well thought I was pretty good till I met Kerry and she smoked me but that's besides the point. LOL

I even have one of those machine-gun BB guns...it empties a 52 BB mag in 3-4 seconds! I "HAVE" terrorized the squirrels before but I like the animals here.... and they have clearly communicated that they don't seem to care for any of the guns though so I keep them put away.

 

[144 Grandpa Turtle]

Boooooo. Bad Tom. Bad bad Tom

Not bad Tom!!!! I lost all my leopard eggs last year and all of my Marginal Eggs to squirrels last year but they payed i got 5 of them in my live traps but because of the heat they all dieded in the traps!!!

 

[NamedNut]

I bet squirrelforum.com wouldn’t be happy.

 

[144 Grandpa Turtle]

I bet squirrelforum.com wouldn’t be happy.

How Does the TFO feel about the loss of a years' worth of leopard eggs and a year's worth of Marginals eggs from 4 females?

 

[SinLA]

Definitely an animal dying from heat exposure for doing what it does naturally is not something I would support. I would pick the gun over that method of death any day...

 

[NamedNut]

Haha, I was just making a joke

 

[Yvonne G]

I don't think Grampa Turtle left the squirrels out in the sun on purpose. An unfortunate part of trapping. Let's give him the benefit of the doubt.

 

[144 Grandpa Turtle]

Definitely an animal dying from heat exposure for doing what it does naturally is not something I would support. I would pick the gun over that method of death any day...

They may have been sick cause they weren't in the trap more then 20 min.

 

[SinLA]

They may have been sick cause they weren't in the trap more then 20 min.

Oh wow, that seems very strange. I am very sorry that happened.