Chapter 5: At the Bird Feeder

What do you mean that feeder isn't for me? Why would you put it there for anyone else?

Like I said before, we squirrels love to eat, and we need to eat a lot. So if you've got food set out in an easy place, we're there. Hey, it's fast food. Good quantity, not a lot of work. We're not going to pass it up. I don't know why so many birds are always trying to get at our food — but we'll scare them away. After all, we're bigger than they are!

And, yes, we're pretty smart. We can usually figure out how to climb up to most of those feeders you set out for us. It's good exercise. If you put up a baffle, we'll figure out how to jump over it, or to get to the feeder from a nearby tree branch. If you cut down the branches, we'll jump from other branches, or from the tree trunk. We can usually figure it out somehow.

Sometimes people have hung up slinkies on the feeder poles. Now, that's a challenge! Safflower seeds are not our favorites, so if you want — for some unknown reason — to feed birds, that's what you might consider feeding them. But remember, we'll eat just about anything. So if we're really hungry, even safflower seeds will be eaten. A squirrel’s gotta do what a squirrel’s gotta do!