The past week has been an interesting one with my birds and squirrels – last weekend we put out a second feeder, a cylindrical one with six perches. I’ve noticed that some birds seem skittish in a large group, especially when the others start getting aggressive, so I thought maybe it would be more comfortable for them to have a quieter place to perch. by Tuesday, the squirrels were on a mission to conquer it, and they reminded me of musclemen at Venice Beach when they pulled themselves up by the bottom perches. Of course, the holes were not something they’d seen before, so I figured they’d just stick to the other feeder. I was quite mistaken. They attacked the feeder with all the intensity of political protesters, and I’ll admit, I underestimated their intelligence. They chewed the covers off the seed portals and nearly pulled one completely off, which I didn’t know until I poured seed in and it feel through to the ground.

I left it up with what little seed it would hold and much to my surprise, some of my birds started using it. This morning we were visited by both a male and female goldfinch, which was thrilling. They sat on the perches and stayed for a while and it was fun to see them. Louis, my male cardinal, actually landed on the old feeder, which he usually never does. Such an exciting morning at my feeder and I actually got a wooden one this afternoon with perches. If the squirrels can destroy that one, I will just give up.