How to keep Squirrels off your bird food

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Same as all HTUK forums, be courteous, polite and tolerant, remember everyone is entitled to an opinion, even if you don't agree with it ;)
Mr List

Re: How to keep Squirrels off your bird food

Post by Mr List »

I suppose it depends on where you are to how you view certain animals.

I know the grey squirrels have devastated the red squirrels but that is a ship that has sailed.
here near the centre of Leeds any wildlife is a rare thing and I squeal like a little girl if I see a bunny or a squirrel because I just like to some something's which are living creatures.
kata

Re: How to keep Squirrels off your bird food

Post by kata »

And when the red Squirrels go extinct ML...
I know the grey Squirrels have devastated the red squirrels but that is a ship that has sailed.
No its not. They have not reached the IUCN Red list yet so we can still save the red ones. Grey ones are not native to this country but are predictors.
The eastern gray squirrel or grey squirrel (depending on region) (Sciurus carolinensis) is a tree squirrel in the genus Sciurus native to the eastern and midwestern United States, and to the southerly portions of the eastern provinces of Canada. The native range of the eastern gray squirrel overlaps with that of the fox squirrel (Sciurus niger), with which it is sometimes confused, although the core of the fox squirrel's range is slightly more to the west.
Predators & threats Polecats, pine martens, wildcats, some owls and goshawks. They are also faced with fierce competition from larger grey squirrels, the loss of their woodland habitat and the deadly disease called squirrel poxvirus.

Status & distribution Red squirrels were relatively common until the 1940s, but are now almost extinct in England. There are only a few scattered, isolated populations remaining in Wales, the North of England, Norfolk, Cumbria, Brownsea Island and the Isle of Wight. They are still relatively common in Scotland and Ireland but it is thought that these populations are also in decline.
I love animals but sometimes its necessary to act fast as in the case of our red Squirrels, before they go extinct.
:(
Mr List

Re: How to keep Squirrels off your bird food

Post by Mr List »

i'm saying not being nice to grey squirrels in leeds won't help the red ones.
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Dave Brown
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Re: How to keep Squirrels off your bird food

Post by Dave Brown »

We destroyed the Red Squirrel's habitat, so it retreated. It requires Pines/Conifers, and where the forests were fragmented they gradually died out, as they don't travel on the ground. The Grey's on the other hand are far more adaptable and seem to live in any large trees with a food source nearby, your bird feeders for instance.

The Greys didn't force the Reds out, they were just far more able to colonise what we left behind. :wink:

Going back on topic. Has anyone tried the chilli powder remedy ? If so, did it work ? and how much did you have to use ?
Best regards
Dave
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Scotkat

Re: How to keep Squirrels off your bird food

Post by Scotkat »

We only get red squirrels and they are protected .

Birds share their food :D
kata

Re: How to keep Squirrels off your bird food

Post by kata »

Hurrah, Scot has red Squirrels, look after them Scot.
They'll certainly feel it if they get it in their eyes though and could potentially damage their eyes when they try and scratch them to relieve the pain.
Its too cruel.

I put nuts on a feeder but silly Doves try to get on the peg... :lol: :lol:

I just today put a fat ball for the birds on a table. I watched the small birds bathing on the garage roof, quite a sight.

:lol:
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Dave Brown
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Re: How to keep Squirrels off your bird food

Post by Dave Brown »

Scotkat wrote:We only get red squirrels and they are protected .

Birds share their food :D
Glad to hear you have the reds, they are protected, and that you allow the birds to share the red's food :wink:
Best regards
Dave
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kata

Re: How to keep Squirrels off your bird food

Post by kata »

Nice, I agree!

:mrgreen:
Alexander

Re: How to keep Squirrels off your bird food

Post by Alexander »

Dave Brown wrote:We destroyed the Red Squirrel's habitat, so it retreated. It requires Pines/Conifers, and where the forests were fragmented they gradually died out, as they don't travel on the ground. The Grey's on the other hand are far more adaptable and seem to live in any large trees with a food source nearby, your bird feeders for instance.

The Greys didn't force the Reds out, they were just far more able to colonise what we left behind. :wink:

Going back on topic. Has anyone tried the chilli powder remedy ? If so, did it work ? and how much did you have to use ?
Thats not true. Most of the origenal forest in the UK would be deciduos broadleave forest, and still some is left like the New Forest. And in the north you had the Caledonian pine forest of Pinus sylvestris. The red squirrel can be found in both deciduous and conifer forests. In Continental Europe its found from Northern Scandinavia above the Arctic circle till the sout of Italy and Southern Spain. So its habitat range goes from boreal taiga forest in the north, mixed and deciduous forest farther south and till evergreen oakforests in the Mediterranean, Its absent from several islands there however.

The reson that those redsquirrels are dissapearing is competition for food and the parapoxvirus wich gray squirrels can carry. Those are inmun for it but the red squirrel is not and can die from it.

Here in The Netherlands you still can see the red squirrel, for example just east of the dunes in some forested habitat.And on the higher grounds in the center, east and south. And in gardens also when in an area with foresthabitat.

Alexander
Alexander

Re: How to keep Squirrels off your bird food

Post by Alexander »

Here some distribution maps of the gray American one in Europe and the native red one. Worrying is the situation of gray squirrel populations in North Western Italy. Ones they have reached the deciduos broadleave mountain forets they could easely spread to the rest of Europe. So they should be erradicated as soon as possible!
In the UK and Ireland the red squirrel could be a sort of subspecies or at least a bit differend from the ones overhere. So its loss would be very said! Fortunately on the Isle of Wight you still get only the red squirrel and no gray squirrel. So its shows a bit the situation as it ones used to be in the rest of The UK and Ireland before the introduction of the American gray one.

stoverview.blogspot.nl/2011/11/mammals-of-british-isles-squirrel-based.html

rsst.org.uk/about-us/faqs/

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/ar ... 0708002723

Alexander
Alexander

Re: How to keep Squirrels off your bird food

Post by Alexander »

Maybe an option is also to introduce the red UK squirrel to isolated offshore Islands when there is native forest there and no gray squirrels. They did something similair with the kiwi birds on New Zealand. On the 2 big Islands they where hunted down by cats and other introduced animals like rats. But on some Islands along the coast free of exotic species they where save for those pests.

Alexander
Mr List

Re: How to keep Squirrels off your bird food

Post by Mr List »

can't they develop a vaccine for the reds?

I think the virus thing is their main downfall
sanatic1234

Re: How to keep Squirrels off your bird food

Post by sanatic1234 »

How stop greedy pigeons from eating all the bird food? I love to see blackbirds eating the food but as soon as i put a fresh lot out the pigeons have eaten it in a day, poor blackbirds hardly get a look in. :(
jezza

Re: How to keep Squirrels off your bird food

Post by jezza »

With regards to grey squirrels, i have found by accident that if you leave broken up conkers around they go for those like it's an aphrodisiac and leave everything else alone. I found this out when my daughter picked some up and smashed them into pieces.
Alexander

Re: How to keep Squirrels off your bird food

Post by Alexander »

sanatic1234 wrote:How stop greedy pigeons from eating all the bird food? I love to see blackbirds eating the food but as soon as i put a fresh lot out the pigeons have eaten it in a day, poor blackbirds hardly get a look in. :(
Well leave dead leaves on the ground, srubs with berries blackbirds eat etcetera. And feed birds only when its realy cold with snow and ice. But now its nonesence to feed them. Autumn is a season of plenty for them!
And feeding birds all year only increases the number of unwanted gready pigeons...

Alexander
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