Squirrel Antics

After many years living at this place, I finally have a few squirrels as regular visitors in the backyard. I really don't mind squirrels -- many of my birdfeeders are squirrel-proof so the squirrels mostly behave and eat at the ground feeder trays that I fill with corn for them. The squirrels do give me plenty of photo opportunities and lots of chuckles while watching them from my dining room window. Here are a bunch of pictures that I've been saving up for several months and am finally getting around to sharing them here on the blog.

Here is my fattest gray squirrel trying to figure out how to get the delicious, peanutty birdseed from my Yankee Tipper feeder.
The beauty of this feeder is that the lid is heavy aluminum and can't be chewed through -- all the while the vision of those peanuts is taunting this squirrel.

The large diameter and smoothness of the seed tube doesn't give the squirrel any chance to grab on and shimmy its way down to the seed ports.

I was waiting for the squirrel to drop down onto the tray so I could see the tray tip the squirrel off, but this guy evidently has experienced one of these feeders before and didn't even try to get down to the seed.

So the next stop was my woodpecker log filled with delicious peanutty suet -- only to encounter another disappointment with the cage protector. Can you believe how chubby this squirrel is?

I do let them drink as much water as they want though. ;-)

For entertainment value, this Squngee corn feeder has been a good addition to my backyard feeding station.

However, my squirrels are too lazy (or maybe too fat??) to jump up on the ears of corn once they eat past the point of where they can reach from a standing position.

Whoa!! Getting a little off-balance here!

Corn is OK, but peanuts are way better! Another trip to the deck for shelled peanuts.

Drat! Can't even chew through this metal feeder! (and I can't even imagine how awful that green plastic coating must taste)

This ambitious squirrel found easy access to the corn on the cob I put out for the bluejays to peck on. His bushy tail makes a good umbrella on this rainy day.

And if you're a squirrel not ambitious enough to leap to the corn cobs, it's pretty easy to pull them over from the feeder tray. This skinny squirrel is not a regular visitor -- probably because Fatty keeps chasing all the other squirrels away.

I have at least 2 red squirrels who visit regularly too. These little guys are my favorites. Even though they can be super naughty, I still think they're adorable.

Because of its smaller size, the red squirrel employs a totally different method for obtaining peanuts than the big gray squirrel has to use.

I'm amazed how this little guy can hang on with only its back feet and eat the peanuts with its front feet......and in the pouring rain too!

This looks like a squirrel bed and breakfast! Lazy bugger!

There were a few really snowy weeks last winter when the squirrels were absent from my backyard, but once it got closer to spring, they started to reappear. They seemed to be especially grateful for fresh water at my heated birdbath.

And even heavy snow couldn't deter this determined red squirrel from raiding the birdfeeder tray for its favorite snack -- black oil sunflower seeds.

The tree stump offers a good place to stop and snack on sunflower seeds in a snowstorm too.