Winter Feeding Time

     Even though I do not get snow at least not since I have lived here. Except for one quarter to one half an inch that lasted a day at the most. But that was only once in several years. Even if I do not get the snow the temperatures get cold enough - frost - to make the plants die and the insects go underground - or wherever they go.
     The birds still need to find food so they will be very happy to see feeders in the winter. (Actually they are happy to see them all year, more on that later). It is one of the ways to attract them to your yard in the winter, with the feeder(s) and a heated birdbath. You can have one feeder to many feeders depending on the size of your yard - or the size of your wallet.
     When I first started feeding and watching birds I had a large yard and after I really got going I bought a hanging pole with about five or six hooks. There were trees only bordering the yard, nowhere else. I buried the base of the pole in the center of the lawn a good distance from the trees and from the house. The birds gradually started coming to the feeders I had placed on the hooks.

At first a squirrel had me baffled...but I baffled it!

    One time after I had packed up my possessions and moved to a new neck of the woods, I still had everything packed away except a bird feeder. So I hung it up. I soon heard the sounds of birds warbling and crooning and gradually the feeder was covered with many sizes and shapes of God's winged creatures. Eventually the seeds were beginning to fade rather quickly. I found out why but it was not the birds.
     The birds were not coming to the feeders that much. I noticed another of God's creatures lingering around the feeders recurrently, so when I could I observed it. I finally saw the squirrel jump from the deck railing, bounce off of the house wall, and land on the feeder; or else from the deck railing straight onto the feeder.
     Since I did not have a car, or public transportation, I had to think of my own way of keeping the squirrel from consuming the seeds. At first, I was banging on the window in the cook's room - afraid that I would crack it - or I was opening the back door when it was warm.
     I finally made my own squirrel baffle. I found a pie pan - which I did not use since I do not make pies. It had two sections which rotated. I pried them apart at the center pin, got a piece of string (wire would have been better), and rehung the feeder with the 'baffle' on top. I finally 'baffled' the arboreal rodent to stay off of the bird feeder. I fetched the squirrel a vessel for colored blossoms made a couple of rain holes and put in some peanuts, then placed it at the other side of the deck.

Do not let the squirrel outsmart you.

Tell us about your encounters and your original ideas to keep it away from the feeders.