Wildlife

Red squirrel inside feeder during sleet shower

Christmas came early this year with the arrival of red squirrels to the garden. What a great privilege this has been to see. We’ve had another garden sighting of two red squirrels at the same time but this time them both got a start at seeing the other and ran off in different directions. Both were seen using the feeder.

After the successful brief trial of a clothes peg to prop open the feeder it has certainly been well used! It’s been a great distraction from the rushing around at this time of year – when I’ve been at home long enough to see it 🙂

An update to my experience using a squirrel feeder, that I would like to pass on after seeing the squirrel inside it, is that if you only fill it one third full the nuts inside have more of a chance of staying dry longer. As there is then more space inside, you might see it being used as in indoor feeder during wet and wintry weather. Good luck with your homemade squirrel feeder John – good job there 🙂

You can see in the video below that a visiting red squirrel, during a sleet shower, was quite comical to watch. The lighting was poor but you can still see it inside. By the smear marks on the perspex of the feeder it looks like it’s a common occurrence for red squirrels to dine indoors. Please note before playing (1 min) I couldn’t resist adding a bit of music here.
Also, take a closer look at the beginning of the 2nd clip, you can see how a
squirrel baffle must work as it struggles to go upwards under feeder.

As I uploaded my video just now, one individual (or was it?) was running back and forth again feeding both inside and by stretching from the outside. More stashing of nuts in the wet garden borders were seen too. As much as I would love to sit here gardenwatching longer, there is much Christmas prep awaiting my attention! I’m not alone there, I know 🙂

Before I run like the wind to get things done, I’d like to wish you all a very HAPPY CHRISTMAS and to thank-you for visiting and leaving comments for another year. I haven’t quite managed to post the updates I would have liked but I’ll catch up on them at some point over the winter months. Keep warm and safe. Best wishes to you all, Shirley x

This post was published by Shirley for shirls gardenwatch in December 2016.

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