When someone asked Kevin Dunham how he prevents squirrels from getting to his feeders, he simply replied, “I don’t”. I guess squirrels have to eat, too, right? Today he shares some of his “high flying” peanut thieves with us. These aren’t the “flying squirrel” variety, but they sure can jump from the branches and glide to the feeders, looking quite graceful, I might add. I know from watching them in our trees and on our feeders, where there’s a will, there’s a way for these hungry critters.

In anticipation of the shipping season opening back up on March 25th, we have a look at what it’s like to be at the Soo Locks on opening day, from MI Playground. Twenty more days and the freighters will be back at it on Lake Superior once again.

I've pretty much given up trying to keep them out of our feeders. Like you say Mary, they gotta eat, too. We've had a very mixed bag of birds this year, some that we've never seen before at the feeders. Been photographing/recording their activity and have gotten some great photos along the way.

Those are absolutely amazing photos of that leaping squirrel, especially the one with the blue jay giving up the feeder.
I've successfully foiled those feeder-robbing squirrels by stringing and attaching a plastic-coated cable between two trees, about 7 ft above ground level. Along the cable are approx 16 plastic soda bottles with a hole drilled into the bottom of each. They are then strung along the cable, with the feeder in the middle. The squirrels don't even think about trying any more. Voila! It works!

Hi
Squirrels are quite good at problem solving when
food is involved. A family friend put his feeder
what he thought was an impossible distance from any
jumping point. Then, while working in his garden, he
heard a thump. He investigated and found the
squirrel jumped at his garage and caromed off of
that wall onto the feeder.

Great pics, the first pic looks like the squirrel is
frozen to the branch, lol.

George, very ingenious to keep the squirrels at bay.
Two thumbs up.

Always looking forward to seeing the Freighter's!!
Means, nicer weather coming soon!!

I had my feeders far enough from anything they
could jump from, and put baffles on the poles.
Done. No more squirrels. They'd come in and lay
under the shade on hot days....

That black squirrel is so beautiful...we had them
when I lived elsewhere, and they mated with the
grays and there were some beautiful, almost brown
colored squirrels the next year!

Nice pix and can you say;
“Squirrelympic Games”?
And a short & sweet video too.

Squirrels are amazing creatures
and so much fun to watch.

Hi
Donna, the species (Sciurus carolinensis) with the
common name of gray squirrel has a black color
phase. Just like some black bears (species name
Ursus americanus) are reddish brown.

After I read the first sentence:

"When someone asked Kevin Dunham how he prevents squirrels from getting to his feeders."

and it was immediately after I wondered where was the next photo showing the squirrel landing on the feeder, my instinctive next thought was a visual of the squirrel flying SIDEWAYS after being taken out with a shotgun. Apologies, it's late a night.

We have tons of black squirrels here in Northern Illinois. They do seem to be getting more brown though.

This guy's video shows what happened when he gave up on the birds and embraced the squirrels:

Squirrel Olympics