Wednesday, January 20, 2010

Squirrel Treats

Since I'm not buying dog treats anymore, I'm spending that money on squirrel/bird/chipmunk treats. When I lived in Texas I had a suet holder and I recently put one up here. It's getting rave reviews-and not just from the birds. Remember when I got the corn for the squirrels? Well, I never saw a squirrel eat any-but the chipmunks (one anyway) and a blue jay enjoyed the treat. Well, I got the suet for the birds-but the squirrels are the ones really enjoying it! They are so much fun to watch. A squirrel will sit on the branch above the holder, then hang upside down to work some of the suet out. Meanwhile, the grackles (or crows or ravens...big black birds) are on the ground underneath, eating all the suet that falls out. The squirrels are quite protective of "their" food too. One day I saw a squirrel sitting on the holder eating when a crow landed on a nearby branch. The weight of the bird landing must have startled the squirrel as he ran off to a high branch. But he turned around and saw that it was the crow. Then he ran at the bird, waving his arms, shooing the bird away from his food. The bird left and the squirrel went back to eating. Keep in mind that the bird is about 3 times the size of the squirrel. I need to go buy more suet-these guys eat it up quickly!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

and get some video...

Steph said...

They are a ton of fun to watch, but they can definitely eat a lot.