Can you outsmart a red squirrel ?

This past week Connie complained that a red squirrel was eating all the sunflower seed from our bird feeder.  She wanted me to solve the problem and save some bird seed.  Naturally, I jumped at the challenge of the task.  I designed a feeder holding device made from two pieces of strap iron and separated by 2” blocks at 18” intervals. When I put it in place I found that the vertical strength was fine but the slightest breeze made the yaw uncontrollable.  Back to the drawing board.  Score:   squirrel 1, Dal  0

  I went back in my woods to check out the parts department. (Connie calls it a junk pile).  I found a piece of old electrical conduit 1” in diameter and 10’ long.  This inspired a new idea that just had to work!!  I fastened the conduit on an oak tree with 8’ extending in the air on a 45 degree angle.  I installed an off center “rat guard”  50” from the centerline of the tree .  The rat guard was square with an oversized hole that caused it to spin when an uneven weight was applied to any corner.  I held it in position by placing a ty-wrap on the down side.  This left just less than 4’ from the guard to the end of the pole.  On the end of the pole if fastened a 40’ length of #11 wire connected to the bird feeder.

  The speed at which the squirrel could run was checked  by bellowing at him while he was under the feeder to see how long it took him to reach a tree 39 feet away.  I clocked him with my stopwatch at just less than 3 seconds or 13 fps.  My guess was that the force of gravity would drag him down before he could leap the distance from the rat guard to the feeder.  Wrong again.  The squirrels must have a ballistic leap.  Score squirrels 2,  Dal 0

  Then I came up with a plan that couldn’t fail.  I shot um both with my 12 gauge shotgun.  Score Dal  2, Squirrels 2.  I figure that I won by a TKO because the squirrels were not able to come out for round 3.